Track Listing

1. on the mountain top
2. forest love
3. quan ho folk song
4. t'rung stream
5. mountain cave
6. highland dance
7. spring is coming
8. cai luong folk song
9. farmer's song
10. spring walk
11. full moon dance
12. native land
13. nortwest folk song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93395 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
The Khac Chi Ensemble (pronounced "Kak Chi") makes startling music in that adjective's strictest sense. Now based on Canada's West Coast, they play a diversity of musical instruments in several Vietnamese folk and regional styles. For anyone unused to Vietnam's unique instruments, it will be the sounds that startle. For anyone familiar with Vietnamese music, it will be their sheer virtuosity which does the trick. At the heart of the ensemble are Ho Khac Chi who specialises in the dan bau (a one-stringed zither) and Hoang Ngoc Bich (whose given name is pronounced "Nok Bik") who is the ensemble's female voice and multi-instrumentalist. For example, the lullaby "On The Mountain Top" (taken from the tradition of the Ede people of the Vietnam highlands) features Ngoc Bich's ko ni playing. Lacking any conventional resonating chamber, the ko ni's two strings are attached by silken cords to a resonating disc held in the mouth. By applying pressure variously with the tongue and lips, the player colours the vibration to create a range of eldritch sounds. Ko ni is indicative of their arsenal of unusual instruments. The Khac Chi Ensemble delivers a repertoire here that is simply entrancing. --Ken Hunt