Hà Noi Duo

French guitarist Nguyên Lê and Vietnamese singer and multi-instrumentalist Ngô Hong Quang take the clash of the modern and traditional in Vietnam, the land of their ancestors, as the inspiration for this collaborative album.

In its more bombastic moments, Hà Noi Duo evokes a Hanoi highway crossing. Monastic chants collide with trance-like breakbeats, exploding into proggy guitar solos. It is overwhelming, but joyously so. There is a cheeky charm to ‘Beggar's Love Song’, which contains incongruously crunchy riffing from traditional instruments like the đàn tinh (a kind of lute). The album's subtler moments are its most successful. ‘Heaven's Gourd’ has the feel of a porchside jam between Nguyên Lê on acoustic guitar and Ngô Hong Quang on đàn tinh. Both summon up bluesy licks that bring to mind Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder's landmark collaboration Talking Timbuktu. Hindustani classical elements are liberally added to mix. Prabhu Edouard leads rhythmic workouts from his tabla, and passages are given fresh impetus by the muted trumpet of Sicilian musician Paolo Fresu. He is a highlight on every track he is featured on, particularly when providing a counterpoint to Quang's voice on flugelhorn.

As an evocation of modern Vietnam, the album undoubtedly succeeds: it's chaotic and contradictory perhaps, but undeniably charming.