Amazon.comGuo Yue is best known in the West for his contributions to the Oscar-winning soundtrack to "The Last Emperor," but the Chinese-born artist is a respected folk musician and composer in his own right. Since coming to London in the '80s, Yue has collaborated with the Chieftans, Peter Gabriel, and other players exploring intercultural music. On this collaboration with his brother Yi and Clannad founder Pol Brennan, Yue takes a pastoral approach that halfway combines elements of Chinese tradition with a meditative New Age vibe. Yue's flute has a soothing, sensual quality, while his compositions echo his eclectic interests, sounding at moments like an Andean pan pipe, Native American, or Irish pennywhistle. --j. poet