Customer Rating: 
Summary: Just what I was looking for!
Comment: When I needed music from the Middle East and Asia, this was the perfect purchase. I especially appreciated the detailed descriptions in the booklet that accompanied the 2 CD set. It was so colorful, informative, and well done! There is vocabulary, maps and pictures from all over Asia.
What a fabulous compilation of musical goodness!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Be a Marco Polo of music
Comment: Its rather difficult to review this in the regular like it/don't like it way. This is the endemic music of the people along the silk road the runs across Asia. Some of it sounds very strange compared to Western music, like study for an Anthropology course, while some of it very enjoyable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Northern Exposure
Comment: This anthology is an outstanding survey of the northern section of the so-called Silk Road, taking us from Turkey, Azerbaijan,and Iran, through Uzbekistan, southern Siberia, China, and finally to Japan, but not in order, as the CD set is organized instead by category of musical function and the localities seem random. Although there are significant gaps in the styles, and I particularly miss the sweet lyric songs of Kyrgyz women, the powerful mugham voice of Qasimov of Azerbaijan, and more examples of the kylkobyz fiddle of Kzakhstan, the set provides a fine introduction of the musics of inner Asia and particularly the instruments. A glossary of instruments is provided, but unfortunately their images are often lacking. All the examples are short by necessity, when many traditional pieces are far longer in duration. For the uninitiated, it will take repeated listening to distinguish the uniqueness of timbre and rhythm from one land to the other; but this similarity of sounds helps demonstrate the role of the trade routes in sharing instruments and styles, such that the Japanese biwa, the Chinese pipa, and the Arabic oud all are related. If you want to attain some feel for the musics of inner Asia, then certainly these disks will meet the requirement.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sparse Great Songs
Comment: Some of the pieces on the first cd are "take away" great.
The secound cd is ...
I enjoy "world culture" music and sound however, the secound cd in this double collection was a monotonous let down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan
Comment: Thank you for this part of my research on Central Asia.
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