Bright Sheng

This album is a great introduction to the work of Chinese composer Bright Sheng. His excellent use of deep silence around slicing, dissonant melodic lines puts him squarely in the modernist tradition (see Sheng Shen Man), but his lush orchestrations and free play of rhythm makes him something of a neo-romanticist. Although he is not overtly working with traditional Chinese sound material, "Nanking! Nanking!," a deeply melancholy reflection on the 1937 massacre, features a haunting pipa solo.