Genre: Neofolk / Dark Folk

01 牌坊 (Memorial Arch)
02 耕牛 (Farm Cattle)
03 庆符镇 (Celebrate Fu Zhen)
04 乡谣 (Township Ballad)
05 桥 (Bridge)
06 童趣 (Tong Qu)
07 小船 (Boat)
08 时间 (Time)
09 远山 (Far Mountain)
10 哪里呀?(Where?)

Bai Shui comes from the Chinese prefecture-level city of Yibin from the province of Sichuan, which has a rich history. Drawing inspiration from this history, BaiShui has dedicated his debut album to this province. The ten tracks (which titles I hope Babelfish has translated correctly) tell stories about towns in the southern area of Sichuan, and Yibin in particular. At first, I had some trouble figuring out from who this CD even was, since nearly everything, except the credits and contacts, are in Chinese. Obviously, I don't speak Chinese, but luckily I live in an studentappartment, and one of my housemates is Chinese. He quickly transcribed the artist, BaiShui (which according to him means 'white water'), and the albumname, Time. It was sadly a bit too much to have him translate all the lyrics, so I can't comment on the lyrical aspect of this album. Lastly, BaiShui is also the man behind the Chinese projects Bloody Woods and Eltan Renaxy.

Rest assured though, there's plenty to be said about the other aspects of this amazing album. Where most neofolk comes from the western world and is usually sung by deep and dark male vocals, BaiShui takes on a different approach. By merging acoustic guitar with eastern soundstructures and melodies, as well as adding various Chinese flutes to the music, such as the Xiao and the Xun, the music gets a totally different feeling than the normal neofolk standards. Add to that the Chinese vocals, which are more diverse and tonal, rather than somewhat emotionless, and you'll have a wonderful album.

The initial track starts with a lush flute and the sound of a riverstream, before the acoustic guitar starts playing. Really soon the track turns into a real tale-telling track, with spoken words rather than singing, and a rather slow pace. As a whole the track is very beautiful, which mostly is due to the Chinese flute being played. Tracks two and four are acoustic, except for the nonsense words, and they really show the skills of BaiShui on the various instruments he plays on this album.

The ten tracks that Bai Shui presents on his debut are very different, which results in a very diverse and interesting album. Even though it's all sung in Chinese, this should not hold anyone back from at least checking this band out. The album clocks in at sadly only 37 minutes, which are really over before you realise it. The album comes in a six-panel digipack with wonderful darkgreen/white photographs, and with an additional six-panel 'booklet' with all the lyrics printed (in Chinese only) on the three frontpanels.

In conclusion: this is a wonderful neofolk project, one you must hear. Leave behind the Germanic inspired and western (European) neofolk for once, and taste what kind of musical beauty the Asian world has to offer. Highly recommended!