Orchid Ensemble Life Death Tears Dream Orchid Ensemble (51 mins) HHH New blooms from Canadian fusion flowers This is the third release by the Vancouver-based ensemble that features Lan Tung on Taiwanese erhu (two-string spiked fiddle), Haiqiong Deng on Chinese zheng (a plucked long zither) and Canadian percussionist Jonathan Bernard. The ten tracks reflect their interest in Chinese and Taiwanese traditional music and poetry, alongside contemporary classical compositional form, flamenco and the music of the Jewish diaspora. The opening piece, ‘Dancing Moon’, is a good example. It is a tight, modern arrangement by Tung of a folk melody and a Tang Dynasty poem by Li Bai, with musical improvisation and rhythmic modulation. The vocal quality of the erhu and the plucked zestful energy of the zheng root the piece in China; however, Bernard’s marimba and percussion underpinning gives a slight jazz-world feeling. The only downside lies in the lack of clarity in the recording of Lan Tung’s singing. The Orchid Ensemble’s take on ‘Tune of Mulberry’ and ‘Three Variations on Plum Blossom’ follow this style in a more contemplative manner while ‘Ay La Llamo’ is a traditional flamenco sung with power and gusto by guest Kei Ooka. The fragile sound of the erhu does not, however, quite reach the depth and power needed to connect to flamenco’s duende soul. The album’s title-track is a chamber-music style piece, with the zheng sounding more like a classical harp accompanying a three-part harmony vocal. It is only when the erhu and gamelan-style rhythm kick in that the piece hints at the East.

TRACK TO TRY: Dancing Moon

Michael Ormiston