Miho Saigo’s debut CD, “The Wind Gave Me This Story,” is a captivating work of Eastern tones and contemporary melodies, expressed in the rich vernacular of a Mongolian 2-stringed instrument called a morin khuur. Similar in sound and size to a cello (although slightly smaller with a more box-like body), the morin khuur produces a varied sound, much dependent on the performer’s unique artistry, which, in Saigo’s case, is considerable. Accompanied mainly by spare and nuanced piano, the 7 instrumental pieces on “The Wind Gave Me This Story” evoke the wild plains of Mongolia with deep and inspired reverie. A plaintive melody infuses CD-opener, “A Song of Wind and Sky,” a song of wonderment for nature’s bounty, while Saigo effectively plays with rhythm on the visually evocative, “A White Horse in Suho.” While the beautiful “The Kite” is less buoyant than one might infer, its pastoral melody is like a kite’s tail gliding across an open sky with infinite grace. Equal parts Asian World music and New Age soundscapes, Miho Saigo’s “The Wind Gave Me This Story” CD is an engaging and spiritual album for listeners with imagination as profound as wind.
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