Cream obviously goes with coffee, cinnamon obviously goes with apples, Grateful obviously goes with Dead and lime obviously goes with green. Never in my wildest dreams did I think horns could go with Middle Eastern music...dual Vermont and New Hampshire world jazz duo 35th Parallel prove me wrong with a fantastic new album of traditional and original music from and inspried by Turkey, Armenia, India and the Middle East. Middlesex, Vermont's own Gabe Halberg's tablas and tar keep the pace while ethnic string whizz Mac Richey and an incredible horn section talk giberish, hold prvate conversations, and flow like a river through the album's jazzier offerings, making this album just as fit for a jazz program and a jazz fan as it is for the world music enthusiast such as myself. The first track, "Hepsi Yalandir" starts with Ritchey and the horns trying to find the words, then the tablas fill in the blank as the band talks up a psuedo-klezmer/arabic sandstorm. Some songs carry a frenectic pase, while others are slow as a snail, but just as gripping and mystrious. Improvisation appears to reign suppreme here, as in the short, solo jaw harp peice "Kou Zhang", the song itself named after the ancienct Chinese instrument played by Halberg. Sounding a bit sythesized, "Kou Zhang" is 100% acoustic and has sort of an organic, quirky, techno-feeling beat behind it....showing that the band stil has a sense of humor amidst all this edgy onversation. Other tracks of note are "Kurdili Hijazkar Longa", "Donagan Bar", "Taramad" and "The Deep", featuring Ritchey's PCV piping didgeridoo and some wicked etheral, "how are they doing that with their voices?" overtone singing. "Ashes to the Ocean" is a nice, slow, oud and tar groove to finish the album out. Definately not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, new age/ fusion album.