Before they featured on Bjork's new album...

I don't know much about the all-girl Icelandic brass band that Ms. Gudmundsdottir has lined up for "her forthcoming album":http://bjork.com/news/?id=608;year=2007#news, but I do know that these are two formidable string players she's recruited.(1) Toumani Diabaté on kora. I gained access to this music when loverman and I put our record collections together. This old album, Kaira, is a good example of my favourite kind of world music (as long as you keep the global psychedelia firmly in the "rock" category). No fusion, no weird production, no semi-famous white guest stars, just a whole pile of virtuosity and an evocative mood. I like this at breakfast.(2) "Min Xiao-Fen":http://www.bluepipa.org/ on pipa. I recognized her name but had to think to figure out why. She features on my favourite John Zorn album, Filmworks VIII, an all-improvised soundtrack to a film about Jewish refugees in China during WWII (followed by an all-percussion soundtrack to a gay porn movie. Ah, John Zorn...). I think the guitar player is Marc Ribot, of Tom Waits' band. I first heard this album driving at night towards the desert-- can you imagine a more perfect setting for this song? (Other than being a Jewish refugee in China during WWII?)"Ruan - pipa version":http://party.alohamedia.net/wangerfamilie/rock/outside/zorn-ruan-pipa.mp3, by John Zorn.(Now imagine it with Bjork and Timbaland and Antony and and and-- I am excited!)