Last Cicada Singing

Christopher Roberts- qin

Roberts here plays the qin, the venerable Chinese zither-like instrument. It’s of course not like traditional qin music because Roberts suggest such disparate elements such as Delta Blues and Ralph Towner, achieving an end product that’s neither East nor West but a synthesis that does honor to both frames of mind. Like classical Chinese solo instrumental playing (or Ralph Towner, for that matter) Roberts makes silence work for him. Nothing is forced; all sounds as if it has existed for a very long time as part of a previously unimagined tradition. The tension between experimentation and conservatism is irrelevant here. All of this makes this album very much one to recommend.

Cold Blue

CB 0034

www.coldbluemusic.com

Richard Grooms