There is something special about Peruvian harp music that people respond to. Not as brooding as Celtic, not as erudite as strict classical, not taco festive, not as dispersed or self-absorbed as New Age. With so many nots, what is it already?

Got me... Innocent, rooted in earth, inspired by high altitudes, refined and relaxed...

Just get it...

This is a fine collection, good for Yoga, nocturnal relaxation, candlelight dinner. Makes a fine ambient statement without getting in the way of itself, or your activity:

Call Sylvia Woods Harp Center 1. 800. 272- 4277 (West Coast)

Essentially, the place is all things harp... or go to:

http://www.harpcenter.com

Caveat: This collection may be too sweet for the musically hypoglycemic. If you love dissonance... stay tuned for some of our favored EMI jazz recordings.

I'm reluctant to do this, feeling protective - even stingy, I confess, about keeping a personal favorite relatively undiscovered... It took 7 years until 1996 to track down this music from a 3rd generation tape...

But you're worth it...

From the recently departed Manos Hadjidakis, one of the legendary Greek composers who adapted ethnic themes to a classical idiom, we have 30 Nihterina (Night Songs)...

Intelligent, wistful, romantic, mysterious: Greek, off the beaten path. No "Never on Sunday" themes for 100 bazoukis, here. Guaranteed to bring out something very special in you...

Order from Greek Records & Tapes (Tower/Amazon, not!)

Phone: 1.800.473-3522
Ask for MCD -15012/15013: 30 Nihterina (2 CD's)

We recommend this CD for its impeccable and original renditions of some of the finest Latin romantic, mystic and dance ballads from the 1930's to the present. Caetano Veloso is sort of a Brazilian Paul Simon: versatile, widely influential, trend-free, lyric, - with the added inescapable Brazilian sensuality. A voice like down feathers.

The music is classically elegant, yet completely natural and innocent in its blend of rhythm, harmony and lyric... Poco schmaltzy at a few turns, but acceptably so, given a few romantic themes.

In one of our first Golden Retrievers, we recommended the film, "Lisbon Story" by Wim Wenders, for good reasons. One of them is the vocal and instrumental music performed in the film itself by the Madredeus ensemble. If you're attracted to the innocent earthiness of traditional music, the elegance of classical, the seductive soulfulness of Latin (with winds of something other-worldly), then you are OtherWisely advised to take "Ainda" into your home and heart.

Non es una altra take of the best slide guitar riffs in the world we've come to expect from Ry Cooder... This is party and listening music at it's best. Upbeat, Cuban period (40's-50's) revival, rendered with classical finesse and improvisatory panache. We're talking... open white shirts, palms, and good-natured romance here. Get revived.

What happens when you take some eccentrics trained in the Old School, - throw them in a room with cello, violin, synthesizer, piano, guitars, oboe, harmonium, bass, and gentle percussive devices? As compelling as an English Garden on a blustery day, you get the best of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, "Preludes, Airs & Yodels", a 1996 compilation covering the 70's and 80's. Not dated. Not classifiable. Very positive. Very wise. Good for musical snobs and derelicts alike.

Impeccable. One of our favorite things to do is to share those improbably perfect, impossible to describe, not-easily found blends of great stuff. Now, we understand those annoying reviewers who cover their tushes with the catch-all type description of any cultural offering by blathering: classical, yet contemporary; exotic, yet familiar; romantic, yet meditative... What can you do, if it's true??? Our Golden Retriever fetches for you Anroozha - which is all of the above. Could be just right for you, you and that other person together, or just that other person - for its classically inspired, exotic, yet familiar, romantic, yet meditative moods. Enjoy, and have a lovely dinner together.

To order call 1 818 708-1166 (If they aren't in, you'll get a recording in Farsi... Read them something from Rumi.)

Elegant. Sensual. Relaxed. Essencey. Classical. Ethnic. A top pick for refined Latin music breezes. Bachianas Brasileiras on a balmy night. Dinner for two. No grunge. No nose in the air. Pure.

To order, try Tower Records at 1 888 307-9488.

In keeping with the OtherWise spirit, which embraces the beautiful, the electic, the hard to categorize, we would like to introduce you to some music that bends around some unusual corners.

Sometimes, our Golden Retriever needs to go sniffing in the obvious to find what isn't so. If you don't know the Chieftains, even after the past few years of well-merited Celtic and Irish cultural pummeling, then let us bone you in quietly that they have been for many decades the pre-eminent and unpretentious native musical sons of Eire. More than a wee bit before Riverdance, when the Emerald Isle became The Place to Dance In.

This CD is a surprising, evocative blend of Irish & Galician (Spanish Celtic) , medieval, village traditional, and contemporary. Beautifully packaged, too. For years, I thought my 4 Chieftans CD's were enough... Add this one. Just like you and us, good souls evolve into new forms. We all need to be re-visited for the good we've held onto and how we've changed.