Gao Hong creates new traditions for an imaginary nation: a jazzed-up country that is part Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and southern California. As you might imagine, it"s a nation where everyone gets along quite nicely and the food rocks. The leader of this new country would be Gao Hong; she plays the pipa, (pronounced PEE pah) a four-stringed pear-shaped lute, that can play a huge variety of sounds. She is a master performer of this instrument, a native of China, and a familiar face on the international concert scene. She has brought along some amazing friends to help build this sound: India"s legendary sitarist Shubhendra Rao, percussionist/tabla magician Ty Burhoe, flute virtuoso James Newton, and Japanese master shakuhachi player Yoshio Kurahashi. If you don"t know these names, well, they are a dream-team. The music within the disc is some of the most innovative world music of the last 10 years..