Moonrise shines bright with surprises

Dadawa traveled to the remote regions where Chinese ethnic groups live when making her new album.

Full coverage: An ear for China

To Chinese musician Dadawa (Zhu Zheqin), Moonrise is perhaps as important an album as Graceland was to Paul Simon, in the way that it opens new doors for her.

All the songs were inspired by different traditions of folk music and contain samplings of field recordings. You can hear the Tibetan dramyin lute in Mountain Top, Mongolian throat singing in The Wind-Swept Grass, Uygur people's dolan muqam in Kalun and Asayesubay and the Kam Grand Choir of the Dong people in Golden Crowns and Silver Crowns .

A pioneer of world music in China and the first contemporary Chinese musician to have her music released globally, Dadawa has been known for borrowing Tibetan cultural symbols in her previous works.

However, this time Dadawa has expanded her scope drastically and has taken the music of various ethnic groups into her language.

She is not only the singer on the album, but more importantly, its producer.

With samplings of traditional folk music, electronic sounds, performances of a group of young musicians, and Dadawa's own vocal and contribution to composition, Moonrise presents a soundscape that will surprise her old fans.

What's special about Moonrise is that it is a double-CD album, consisting of one disc of Dadawa's works and the other of 24 songs that she recorded during her field trip.