Tree of Dreams

Tree of Dreams is Huong Thanh's second album of traditional Vietnamese music following the release of Cai Luong Music in 2008 (reviewed in #53). While her previous album concentrates on the repertoire of cai luong music theatre from south Vietnam, Tree of Dreams explores three types of folk song – ru (lullabies), ly (love songs) and ho (work songs) – in the different musical styles of northern, central and southern Vietnam. These graceful vocal melodies are sensitively performed and are accompanied by an array of traditional instruments including the dan tranh (zither), the sao (bamboo flute) and the dan bau (monochord). To make the album, Huong Thanh travelled to her native city of Saigon in 2009 to record some expert instrumentalists, before returning to Paris to record her vocals. But the album is well mixed, giving the impression of synchronous, collective performance. The CD itself is handsomely packaged: the liner notes are informative and the disc includes a file with the lyrics in Vietnamese, French and English, which enables listeners to appreciate the poetry of the songs.

Huong Thanh is best known for a string of world music albums with the jazz guitarist Nguyen Le, from Tales of Vietnam (1996) to Fragile Beauty (2007, a Top of the World review in #50). Tree of Dreams, however, sees Huong Thanh deepen her commitment to the traditional songs that are her musical inspiration. Although these recordings may lack the innovative edge of her work with Nguyen Le, they have a romantic charm that is hard to resist.