Yang Xiao-lin | I Take You There |Hugo | Hong Kong

Here's a CD I wasn't expecting to like. The packaging and face on the cover, though both lovely, suggested to me that luke-warm, new-agey shtick that so many world music artists employ for cross-over appeal. I was expecting spiritual-sounding reverbs and ethnic accents and maybe even some of that horrifying Keiko Matsui smoove jazz--in other words, the epitome of what we don't want to review on this site.

To varying degrees, I got what I expected. And yet, after a few spins I found myself enjoying this album. Yang Xiao-ling takes classic folk songs from China, Japan and Indonesia and resets them in contemporary arrangements. It's the kind of music you might hear at a hip teahouse in Hong Kong or Taipei, mellow but not sappy. It's Chinese chill-out music--just pass the oolong tea and licorice watermelon seeds.

I Take You There starts off on a sour note with the usual clichéd Deep Forest yodeling and arpegiated synths, but luckily, it's pretty much all uphill from there. After minute or so of this "ethereal" interlude (it amazes me how many World music albums start off just like this), "Somewhere Far Away" kicks in. This is one of my favorite Chinese folk songs and Yang's trip-hop interpretation of it is really nice--a sexy drum, bass and erhu (Chinese fiddle) groove. This song is pretty representative of the electronica-meets-traditional-instruments approach that dominates the album, but the styles vary enough to keep things interesting, moving from trance to ambient to nu jazz (in an excellent version of "Solo River").

This CD definitely won't be for everyone--many will find it downright cheesy. But if you're a fan of Asian folk song and the soundtrack work of artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto, you'll probably love it. Yang Xiao-lin has a beautiful voice and her album sets a warm and sentimental mood.