The pipa is a four-stringed lute which immediately signals its Asian origins with microtonal scales and note bends. Shao Rong, a Chinese musician living in Japan, makes the most of these characteristics on Orchid. Born in Shanghai, Rong is a classically trained musician whose forte has been folk music and new classical music. On Orchid, producer Seiichi Kyoda places Rong in a more contemporary music setting. A member of the world fusion group, Uttara-Kuru, Kyoda wrote all the music and arrangements on Orchid and he shows a penchant for light melodies and breezy arrangements that heighten the pipa's natural tendency towards sweetness, especially when Rong affects a mandolin-like tremelo. Kyoda surrounds her with ghuzeng zithers, tizi and shakuhachi flutes, and the erhu, a Chinese violin played by Jia Peng Fang. Kyoda also works some darker tones on the electro tabla-driven grooves of "Precious Moon", a re-configuration of a traditional song, and the dynamic "One More Tale". The latter piece centres on a piano-ostinato phrase that lays the road for a cinematic journey into the night. --John Diliberto