Rough Guide to the Music of the A

Purchased two. They skip and I tried it on other players. Poor quality.

I bought this CD after browsing my local Borders for Swiss music for raclette night (a swiss national dish and tradition chez nous). The Rough Guide series is pretty good for giving one a flavour of the country or subject and this seemed a pretty good bet. It's not lots of traditional yodeling, alp horns, or blokes with zithers doing the "Third Man" theme, but it is fairly folky in its tone. Actually, this sounds like some of the more recent celtic/new agey stuff (e.g., Nightnoise) or what the Chieftans have been doing lately. It's a fun change with a strong sampling of music from central Europe and I strongly recommend it.

I found this CD a bit boring, too much of it sounds like it could have come from any "euro-pop" album. There are a few interesting pieces that incorporate alpine arrangements and instruments but yet have a contemporary edge, but these don't compensate for what I felt was an otherwise generic sound to this CD.