itunes/Amazon 
Pluck (US/China,2011)****'
Pluck is a cooperation between Wu Fei (China) on guzheng and voice and Gyan Riley (US) on guitar. Both players seems to adapt perfectly into each other’s sensibilities so that a new fusion area is created, keeping a high and vivid level of melodic harmony and artistry.
The first track, “Saratoga”, reminds me very much of these kora-with-guitar releases, here the Chinese harp plays light and melodic, swinging with brightness and brilliance, the guitar adding rhythmic melody and additional swinging over the improvisation. Then Wu Fei starts to lalala-improvise with her voice over it too, lightly sparkling further. The second track, “The End of the Beginning “ is led by guitar with a sensibility of the slowly developing in space improvisation, the harp adding a few water-lake series of notes, then calming down even more for more voiceover improvisations, in a meditative jazzy way. On “Firestorm” we return to the guzheng instrument, played with similar calmness of development as in the previous track, in Chinese mode this time, the guitar adding its own rhythmic smoothness of development. Then a perfect fuse develops between the guitar and the harp, trembling and picking and shaking with the hands on the strings, evolving as a matter of speaking like a Chinese flamenco. “When Syringa Falls” is like a short melodic musical poem. “Minikin Warrior” develops itself once more with both instruments hand in hand, in this new flamenco/eastern style. “Little Tree” is more Chinese styled, the guitar playing a variation of the musical ideas fusing this style into something different, the harp adding a bit of an extra melody before taking over again. “And Then” is an improvisation with harp flavoured subtle plucks, playing an improvisation with a near eastern melodic sensibility, and with some voice improvised on it too, leading the tune further for most of the track. “Waiting and Weightless” very much plays with the mood remaining in the subtle resonance after the playing. Also here is a great unity between guitar and the Chinese harp, and this is played a rather court-like mood (a bit like a Renaissance court, with an eastern flavour). “Rain Song” is a real song (in two languages) accompanied melodically by guitar picking first, then by Chinese harp and guitar. “One day on Road Dragonfly“ is a nice evolving melodic instrumental picking improvisation on guitar & harp. This changes thoroughly into the next track, “Flying North” to something more eastern, and into the next track, “Lilic Valley” again to a mixed melodic form with both instruments playing more neatly together, as an introduction for a Chinese songwriting song. This song leaves room for descriptive instrumental themes along. This flows into another, short instrumental, “Shan Chuan” which is a perfect mix of guitar and harp in a mixed fusion style. The last track, “The Infinite Conclusion” is a mixture of a song with eastern sensibility and trembling string fingering and a melodic smooth mood improvisation on both instruments playing once more as being one.
A shame the album is download only. I hope there will be released at least in some limited physical edition one day.
