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Title: Dadawa – Voice From The Sky (1997) [Reissue 2017]
Genre: New Age
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Voices from the Sky (央金玛) is the third studio album by Chinese singer Dadawa (music by He Xuntian). The album is a follow up to her second album Sister Drum, which met with controversy, critical and commercial success.

Sister Drum was enough of a success to warrant the creation of Voices From the Sky – but just like the earlier album, Voices makes a listener confront the distinction between rough reality and art. Setting that aside for the moment, Dadawa and He Xuntian do a fair enough job at continuing the spirit of the earlier album without simply rehashing the experience in its entirety. Lyrical inspiration and general ambience remains the same, with Tibet, its landscape and history being the canvas from which singer and musician work to create Voices’ seven songs. Full credits appear for all participating performers this time around, indicating that two choirs as well as players on everything from bamboo flute to ban hu helped in the creation of the lovely arrangements, overseen as before by He. Dadawa herself takes a more upfront role in the singing than before from the start, while the pace of the songs is just that subtly a bit more quicker, in contrast to the generally slow, awe-inspiring swoop of Sister Drum at its start. Lyrically He takes the lion’s share of the writing this time around, though other sources creep in – “The Sixth Dalai Lama’s Love Song” indeed draws its words from that very person, Tsangyang Gyatso, a noted love poet in Tibetan history. The sense of Dadawa being something of a Chinese Enya crops up again on certain songs, such as her multitracked vocals on “The Believer,” but the overall concept and project is still something unique. All this said, though, Voices still can’t disguise the hidden questions of what can or can’t be talked about when it comes to officially approved art. “The Believer” itself, for itself, is described not a love song but ‘a soul of a believer crying out against the strictures of religious dogma’ -which when one considers the Peking government’s continuing campaign to eradicate the power of the lamas in Tibet has an unfortunately chilling corollary.

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Title: Dadawa – Sister Drum (1995) [Reissue 2014]
Genre: New Age, Ambient, Folk
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Sister Drum is the second studio album by Chinese singer Dadawa, which is heavily influenced by the music of Tibet. The album is notable for being the first Asian album to ship over one million copies in China. In traditional Tibetan culture, Sister Drum, whose drumhead is made out of a pure girl’s skin, was used for honoring the god. This behavior has now been prohibited in modern Tibet. This studio ‘Sister Drum’ is based on this cruel context. Only the skin of a pure girl could be chosen to make the drumhead. To prevent them from disturbing in the real world, those girls are better mutes. If it is necessary, sometimes their tongues would be cut out.

It’s hard to be rough on an album with such a marvelous beauty to it. Nonetheless, the extremely attractive Sister Drum, which draws its inspiration from Tibetan music and settings, is on the hand a fantastic showcase for Dadawa herself and, in its own way, a travel document for the region that ignores its turbulent situation. A Chinese singer of some repute, Dadawa was approached by producer/songwriter He Xuntian to be the voice for his musical project exploring Tibetan work with an eye towards modern composition and recording. While it’s a bit of a push, in ways Sister Drum is the Chinese equivalent of Enya’s Watermark, an exquisite and atmospheric record drawing its roots from a non-mainstream cultural source. He’s sense of arrangements is quite fine, mixing traditional Tibetan instrumentation with synths, electric guitars and technology while exercising a clear restraint throughout – music and mood is suggested rather than fully spelled out. Indeed, there’s a careful drama throughout Sister Drum that’s lovely to hear and appreciate. Dadawa’s vocals, sometimes full-bodied, sometimes hushed, meanwhile, suit the lonesome, meditative mood of the music, whether kept in the distance in the mix to increase the sense of soaring vistas or sitting squarely in the middle of the understated performances. When she’s backed by a full choir on songs like “Sky Burial” and the soaring orchestral concluding piece “The Turning Scripture,” the result is truly breathtaking. Evocative and wonderful as this album is, however, one can’t help but feel that there’s something troubling about it – or more accurately, about the fact that the Chinese government’s record on Tibet continues to be horrific while allowing this intentionally apolitical work to be created and marketed. The liner notes carefully emphasize questions of spirituality and native Tibetan beauty – and it would be churlish to doubt Dadawa’s sincerity regarding her lyrical sources and inspirations. Yet more than most albums, Sister Drum is one to enjoy while wondering about what hasn’t been included as much as what has been. On its own a lovely triumph, in context something questionable still lingers.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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