Immeasurable Light

One might have thought that the prolific Wu Man – who more or less single-handedly introduced the Chinese pipa lute to the West – had by now exhausted its possibilities, both as a solo instrument and as the focus for a wide variety of musical applications. But this CD presents it in a new and fascinating light. She's helped on two tracks by the Kronos Quartet, and at one point she lets her hair down with a rumbustious rock-inflected improvisation, bringing to life some of the ancient notated pieces found on scrolls in the Dunhuang caves in Central Asia.

The most memorable track consists of a seventh century Tang melody tricked out with a wind bell, temple gong, wood block, Buddha box and her own warm, dark voice: she was inspired to create this lovely song by the memory of her grandmother singing it. Other numbers exploit the effects she can create by layering the sound of her pipa, with piece adding a bowed track to five layers of plucked ones, to give the impression of a rocky mountain stream with trees swaying in the wind. She also does a John Cage-style preparation of her pipa by attaching a paper plate, paperclips, and a pencil, making sounds that suggest temple bells at sunset. But nothing is more beautiful than the pipa's sound when naked and unadorned, and particularly when it's put through the exotic tunings she and her archaeologist colleague Rembrandt F Wolpert have discovered and revived. She's summoned up ancient spirits, and worked new magic with them.