Hispania and Japan

Bloody hell. It's been over a year since my last post, which appears to have also been the last one on this blog. If you asked me, I would have said the last post was maybe 6 or 7 months ago, but in fact it's been over a year.
Anyway, right now I am listening to an album called "Hispania and Japan" which according to my iPod is by Jordi Savall. It was recommended by emusic. It's a nifty, intriguing recording, full of beautiful and exotic music, but it isn't quite what I thought it would be. It is inspired by the travels of a saint from Spain, to India and then to Japan and uses music from all those cultures as it goes. The Spanish influenced music includes a lot of choral pieces; the Japanese music is very heavy on the shakuhachi. The funny thing is that for the most part the tracks alternate. there will be a Japanese pieces followed by a choral, or a Spanish style guitar. Rarely do the two styles blend on a single track.
One might question what the point of this is, especially in this day of playlists and so forth. If i wanted to listen to different styles of music, this critic would say, I would just program my iPod this way. But that isn't really fair. The different tracks on this album go together in way that forms a whole: you might end up wondering why more composers don't preface their choral music with a solo biwa.
And each track, taken by itself, is worth listening to. So it's a good album, probably more suited to solitary enjoyment that anything else.
Ok, so the post is up. With any luck there will be another in less than 16 months!