Music of Tibetan Buddhism
Anthology of World Music
Rounder/Unesco (www.rounder.com)

The Music of Tibetan Buddhism is created exclusively by brass wind instruments, various percussion and human voices deliberately presenting deep, guttural pitches. It is alternately calm and clamorous, music that marches in slow, almost timeless procession. The sacred ceremonial sounds on these three discs have been taken from original analog tapes made in 1961. Do you need this if you already own Mickey Hart's high definition recordings for Rykodisc and Windham Hill? Possibly not, but if you have no examples of this one-of-a-kind soundworld, this is an excellent, very rustic, and unmistakably authentic 'in loco' introduction. Three discs accompanied by exhaustive notes and surprisingly good remastered analogue. - Steve Taylor