Songs Beyond Words

Performing together for more than 20 years, the husband and wife team of vocalist Mia Hsieh, a Taiwan native, and American zhongruan (lute) player Scott Prairie, plus recent band members Zheng-Jun Wu, Chang-Chin Lo and Hua-Zhou Hsieh, have received rave reviews for their adventurous mix of Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and even Central Asian musical influences. Their live shows, centred on Mia Hsieh's wild vocal style have been a hit on the world music circuit.

And for the most part this translates well on their new studio release, Songs Beyond Words. Tracks such as the lovely ballad ‘Calming the Storm’ work beautifully, and the long, epic ‘Silk Road’ lives up to its romantic title. ‘Wedding Song’ opens with slow droning vocals before exploding into a percussion heavy up-tempo middle section you can imagine hearing at a local wedding in many countries. What works on stage, however, sometimes can go too far in a recorded setting (the latter half of the album can drag slightly at times), but overall this is an impressive and, at times, deeply evocative work, beautifully synthesizing many strands of Chinese and pan-Asian music.