Artist: Various Artists
Album: China Lounge feat. Shanghai Divas
Label: Black Flame Records
Genre: Electronic
Styles: Electronic, World Fusion, Ethnic Lounge
Original Release Date: June 27, 2008
Quality/Bitrate: MP3 / 320 kbit/s / 44.1 Khz / Stereo
Quality/Bitrate: FLAC / Mode: 8, Best Compression / 44.1 Khz / Stereo
Total Time: 69:01 Min

Welcome to the musical China Lounge by Blue Flame Records. This release impressively shows that globalisation is not necessarily an economical influenced one-way road from the West. Globalisation may as well mean an enrichment through Southeast Asian culture, for example. “China Lounge” is no traditional lounge release with purely traditional ethnic vibes, but ads, through the mix of modern-western and Asian traditional sounds to the trans-cultural dialogue.

It seems unimaginable that Western club music goes without the influence of traditional sounds from the Far Eastern hemisphere. Wisdom, enlightenment and warmth of the ancient cultures of Asia combine well with Western innovative arrangements and production. More than ever Asian sounds are anchored in what we call Western club music. The growing movement of immigrants to Europe and America brought traditional Southeast Asian sounds into the Western cultures. These sounds were mixed with vibes of popular local club scenes like Break Beat, Hip Hop or House. This resulted in a global triumph of newly developed styles, with the result of a thriving landscape of the fabulous variety of genres.

The early origins of this phenomenon can be heard in tracks like Lover's Tears of Sow Keng Poon or Tongli Water Garden by Linda Wong. Miss Shanghai heralds in the logical continuation, if the new avant-garde electronics such as the Sino-roots, and now living in New York - The Shanghai Restoration Project or the producer Ian Widgery push further in this development. They integrate eastern sounds in their cosmos and bring it to the dance floor. Ian Widgery became one of the most important hunters and collectors of this music and also a fantastic producer. Red Buddha, as another landmark-magnitude and compiler of “China Lounge”, brings in his love for Asian sound and experience with The Spirit of Ladakh and White Bamboo.

The result is a cross continental magical sound from some extremely rare and previously unreleased productions included on this compilation. The project “China Lounge” thus represents a musical bridge between sound gaps and allows different views. Views of new versions and further developments of the concept of globalisation - from globalisation to a new phenomenon that is called glocalisation: The combination of global and local, between far and near into something completely new. © Blue Flame Records