Last Train To Lhasa

The first disk is an interesting meld of ethnic and electronic music. Disk two is mostly electronica. Both compel, and cannot easily be turned aside. I find that Banco de Gaia has blended a seductive mixture, which too often lures me away from my work and leaves me in a creative trance, communicating with the Kosmos.

Why "Last Train to Lhasa?" The liner notes say it well:

"In 1950 China invaded Tibet, a country the size of Western Europe. The Tibetans have calculated that 1.2 million died as a result of the chinese take-over. In 1959 the Dalai Lama was forced to flee his home and now travels the world gathering support for his people. The biggest threat to Tibet today is the hundreds of thousands of Chinese moving in and squeezing the Tibetans out. In 1994 the Chinese government announced that it intends to build a railway across Tibet to ease the way for even more settlers."

Imagine the *last* train to Lhasa. Imagine the Chinese leaving Tibet. This double CD set begins with railroad sounds blending into flowing synthesizer over a steady beat, reminiscent of a train clacketting along the rails, speeding over the steppes. Tibetan chanting voices fading in and out. Let the music carry you to a place where you envision the Chinese on that train. Leaving Tibet. Going home. Free Tibet!

Track two, "Kuos," continues the railroad motif. Exotic horns (reed instruments of some sort, maybe?)lay over the locomotive sounds, gradually percussion blends in, a wild mix of exotic sounds. The horns fade to synth work, with some electronic percussion as well. Finally, the Tibetan sounds return, with rhythmic chanting overlaying the exotic percussion.

China (clouds not mountains) opens with some esoteric harp music underlying a narrated fable of how persistent work will win out over an insurmountable obstacle. The feel to this track is very flowing. The synth holds the rhythm, while a Chinese sounding melody weaves through the song, synthesized to sound alternately like gongs, bowed- and then plucked-strings.

Amber, begins with windchimes, adds in some distant chanting, then pulls in very mid-eastern sounding rhythms and chanting. Some western orchestration accompanies this piece. Very compelling.

Kincajou begins with percussion. It's a very techno number. Still, the ethnic feel is there. Distant chanting, which almost sounds Native American overlays the dance rhythm and synthesizers.

Disk 2 begins with the gnomes mix of Kuos. Techno opening segues into ethnic percussion. Synthesizers carry a counter-rhythm back in a few minutes later. Lots of rhythm, little melody. Fun.

Kincajou (duck! asteroid) comes next. A repetitive synthesizer melody slowly morphs into a more textured sound as harmony begins to fade in behind the repeated melody line. Still, the melody carries the rhythm. A slow-dance for the Mind. Gradually, the rhythm intensifies & FX get tossed into the mix. It fades into esoteric space & winds, then the synthesizer brings it back with a tocata melody line born, ex nihilo, from the vacuum of space. Melody & harmony continue to morph & evolve, dancing with each other, sometimes orbiting at a distance, other times grazing the folded gray of the mind, finally laying down to rest, 36 minutes after it began.

The CD concludes with Eagle (small steppa mix). This starts out with spacey electronics. It melds in distant sounds of NASA communications, although the words cannot quite be grasped. It builds to a solid, driving synth rhythm, then settles back into a drifting space trance, culminating in a countdown sequence, terminated by random percussion shots and a distant fading doppler effect.