CHI NO HIBIKI HIGASHI YUROPPO WO UTAU

I'm going to rate an excellent album with two stars only. The reason is that the music inside is not progressive or prog so the "fans only" definition applies, but this doesn't mean that the music is poor or bad.

It's a very interesting listening experience. The whole album is a collection of choral music and what makes it amazing is that even being sung in Japanese (I assume) and with some oriental harmonies appearing here and there, the final effect is not different from the western music of the same kind.

Some songs are very close to the Christian anthem, other are similar to the traditional choirs of the Alpine area and "Watashi No Ama Hatake" could be taken from a musical. What does it mean? Probably only that the roots of melody and harmony are common to all the cultures. A major chord is always a major chord regardless if its' played by SouthAfricans zulus, Japaneses, Alpines or Catholic priests.

In terms of pure enjoyment, it's everything very relaxing and very good to comment images, I think to National Geographic stuff.

In the end I wold consider this album as classical music and this is the only reason of the low rating. However open minded listeners and lovers of classical music can find a lot of goodies inside. An example is the short "Odori Jouzu Na Poetorunko" whose harmonies and high pitched accents are close to Bulgarian traditional choral music and the following "Hassanbedda No Uta" that is hardly comparable to anything, even Japanese.

Forget the rating and enjoy it.