COMPOSERS: Traditional Tibetan chant
LABELS: Real World
PERFORMER: Lama Gyurme (vocals), Jean-Philippe Rykiel (keyboards)
CATALOGUE NO: CDRW 85
A less likely Asian venture comes from JEAN-PHILIPPE RYKIEL, who plays the shifting keyboard chords that support Youssou N’Dour’s rousing finale ‘New Africa’ and here gets to work with Tibetan chant.
Whatever the intentions, the effect is as kitschy as setting plainchant to Victorian sequences of harmony. Lama Gyurme growls his way through the solemn and decorative soundscape and, despite his tonal splendour, can’t stop the effect growing a touch repetitive. Quite a voice, just the same.