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Listen and learn
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These reviews first appeared in the June 9, 1995 issue of the North County Blade-Citizen (now North County Times).
Ellipsis Arts has to be about the hippest label on the world music scene. The quality of the packaging on their collections is of the highest order, the liner notes rival National Geographic, and the music featured from around the globe is both exotic and accessible – and always compelling. Now, taking the quality of their releases to yet another plateau, the label has launched a new series, Musical Expeditions.
The first four CDs explore trance music (two volumes), plus Moroccan and African pygmy. The two trance volumes focus on Sufi, Tibetan and Indian trance music, Moroccan healing trances and Balinese temple music.
What sets Musical Expeditions apart from other world music collections is the supporting materials. Each CD comes in a hard-cover, bound booklet containing more than 60 pages of photography and text giving historical and cultural context for the music, biographical information on the musicians, an explanation of the instruments, even quick rundowns of typical lyrical content.
The information is readable, but in-depth and knowledgeable – Ellipsis Arts commissioned anthropological and musicological experts to prepare these articles, yet they are a breezy and informative read.
The whole package meets a demanding combination of standards – high entertainment value, artistic integrity and educational soundness.