SEEDS ON THE GROUND

China hasn't been the home to many well known progressive rock artists so far, for many reasons. Different cultural traditions, as well as a society that was pretty closed to the outside world for many years, means that I'm not even sure if rock music as such is popular there. Enter Cold Fairyland, a Chinese band proudly announcing themselves to be a progressive rock act, with a handful of releases to their name.

"Seeds on the Ground" is a release somewhat similar in style to Norwegian act Green Carnation and their album "The Acoustic Verses". The songs are all dominated by acoustic or acoustic sounding instruments, the bass provides a basic melody line, the guitars adds a slightly more complicated melody line harmonizing with the bass. Unlike aforementioned Green Carnation release vocals aren't a central element here though, instead violins and the traditional Chinese instruments Pipa and Ruan shares the dominating spot on these tunes, both of them adding a distinct folk-inspired and Chinese expression to compositions predominantly rock in style - although mellow in expression.

Good songs too, a few outstanding and the rest very good. Fans of mellow, progressive rock with influences from traditional Chinese music - or those who find this description interesting - have a release to check out here.

COLD FAIRYLAND is a band I became acquanted with on MySpace last year, and at the time I was shocked that there was a band in China that played progressive music. It was good too, at least the songs I heard. I was very glad to see them added here by Windhawk. 8 of the 11 tracks here are instrumental, and the vocals on the other three are female, and in her native language.

This album is very much an acoustic one with guitar, cello, percussion and pipa leading the way.The pipa almost sounds like a banjo to my ears but when you hear it you think China.This instrument is way to dominant for my tastes and besides i'm not really a fan of acoustic albums anyway.

I like the press release for this album that describes it as: "It's countryside is cruel and beautiful, filled with legend, rivers and forests, ghost towns and battlefields." It is an album you can get lost in with the pipa and cello dominating the soundscapes.

I think this album is more Folk then Neo-Prog, and if your into Folk you should check it out, it's quite beautiful. It's just not my style.

This 2007 studio album was the third from Chinese band Cold Fairyland, and apart from a 2016 re-recording of material is their most recent, although Lin Di (vocals, keyboards, pipa, ruan) has been releasing solo albums since then. The line-up is completed by Su Yong (bass, vocals), Zhou Shengan (cello, vocals), Li Jia (drums, vocals) and Song Jian Feng (guitars, vocals) and this is much more of an acoustic album than the live one (the only other album of theirs I have heard), with little in the way of drums. It is far more folk oriented, with a higher emphasis on traditional instruments, yet the contrast of plucked pipa/ruan against a bowed cello is simply lush.

Lin Di's vocals are clear, emotional, and very much to the fore (although there are also many instrumentals) and the overall feeling is of a complex blending together of different styles and traditions which is both complex and simplistic at the same time. There is a real strength in the arrangements, and one is never quite sure where the music is going to go next. It is an incredibly light and refreshing album, recorded at a time when the band was quite settled and working well as a unit. I know that since this release there have been some tours and line-up changes, with Li Din also working as a solo artist, but their website (thankfully available in English as well as Chinese) gives the impression that this is still a working band and one can only hope that means we will be hearing more from these guys at some point. The live album is far more dynamic and punchier than this one, yet this has a beauty from the performances and stylings, and it is hard to pick a favourite. Both albums are worthy of further investigation and I can see I need to search out the earlier releases as well as Lin Di's solo work. With all their albums now easily available through Bandcamp, there is nothing to stop anyone discovering the melding together of Chinese traditional music and progressive rock which is Cold Fairyland.