For the Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le, it is in principle nothing special to cooperate musically with musicians from different cultural backgrounds. He has already successfully challenged many such projects. What I notice very positive in "Sayuki", is the almost democratic to be designated Play, when is audible to me that all players are equally involved and their respective fill and represent specific-acoustic space. No disturbing dominance, no musical hierarchical structures. The result is heard; empathetic, sensitive but also quite distinctive music, influenced by the intention culturally-musical understanding. Europeans tend indeed easy to evaluate the Asian region as a region with a homogeneous musical tradition. Vietnam, India and Japan have however musically so different from each other musical traditions, that it is difficult to build on shared musical experience. The more successful I find this recording. I can only recommend!
