Putamayo Presents World Yoga
Various Artists

We say: Strike a pose and chill out.

If yoga is your thing then you might enjoy this as background music for your asana workout. If it's not then maybe you'd choose this as a sort of chill-out compilation. Not surprisingly, it is very laid-back: most tracks feature acoustic guitars and suitably ambient soundscapes, and the word ‘Om' gets banded about quite a bit.

There are offerings here from all over the globe as you might expect from a label that specializes in world music compilations. Punching well above its weight for a tiny riverbank of a country, Gambia is well represented with two tracks by Sona Jobarteh. The melancholic sound of Armenia gets an outing with Ara Djinkan's "Offering" but more surprising are tracks from Wales, with "Cariad Cyntaf" by 9Bach, Sweden with Tiny Island's lovely "La Valse Petit", and Uganda with Geoffrey Oryema's "Makoambo". No yoga album would be complete without something from Tibet and so here we have Kelsang Cuchukie Tethong with "A Prayer to Dispel Sickness and Harms", which hardly sounds Tibetan at all, more Celtic wistful. Surprisingly there is nothing from India here, and not a sitar to be heard, although Deva Premal & Miten (from Germany/UK), with dreamy vocals and flutes, demonstrate a strong subcontinental influence, as does "Moon Magic (Chandra)" by Steve McNamara which features raga guitar and tabla.

The aim of World Yoga, I suppose, is to calm the listener and not to distract too much, so for obvious reasons there's nothing overly rhythmic here. It's a relaxing selection certainly, nothing to get too worked up about, but surely that is the point.