Various Artists - Buddha-Bar III (2001)

French import

My beautiful wife and I were recently on vacation in the French West Indies, visiting a high school classmate of mine who has retired there. While there, we spent a few late evenings drinking champagne, reminiscing, laughing, eating, and playing a rummy card game my friend learned as a child in Brazil called "Mexe Mexe." There was always some innocuous music playing in the background as we played cards. I enjoyed it and it fit the mood perfectly, so of course I eventually asked about it. I got the full story on the Parisian restaurant Buddha Bar which has its own DJ (Ravin) who released many compilation CDs. Complete explanation over on Wikipedia: Buddha Bar and/or Buddha Bar compilation albums. Also see the restaurant's website at buddhabar.com.

So while I'm over a quarter-century late to the game - better late than never! - I picked up some Buddha Bar CDs upon my return to the US. Mostly international artists of which I've never heard playing in genres with labels such as chill out, lounge, downtempo, etc. fused with world music, mainly Indian and middle eastern. As I said, great background music. I bought an inexpensive multi-CD lot of these things so there will be other Buddha Bar compilations featured in the space.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: 2 CD set. The first CD (15 tracks, 67 minutes) is titled "Dream," the second "Joy" (13 tracks, 77 minutes). Appropriately, each has a slightly different vibe. Tracks all blend/seque in to the next.

CD1	Artist	Title
1	Nicos	Secret Love
2	John Kaizan Neptune	Golden Lotus
3	Yorgos Kazantzis	Sorocos
4	Karunesh	Solitude
5	Platon Andritsakis	Via payuta iii
6	Tulku	Spiral Dance
7	Manuel Franjo	Solo por tu amor
8	Gustavo Montesano & Royal Philharmonic Orquestra	Tango Serenata
9	Adrian Enescu	Invisible Movies Part 1
10	Deepak Ram	A night in Lenasia
11	Amr Diab	Tamallu Maak (Always with you)
12	Frederick Rousseau	Danya
13	Eden	Mavis
14	Oliver Shanti & Friends	Sacral Nirvana
15	Jesse Cook	On Walks The Night

CD2	Artist	Title
1	Gotan Project	Triptico
2	Zeb	Sufism
3	Osman Ismen	Kale
4	Freeman	My Dear Masters
5	Evoka	Starlight in Daden (Aurora Remix)
6	Talvin Singh	Veena
7	Ravi Prasad	Indian Gipsy
8	Hasan Cihat Orter	Flirting Shadows (Sehnaz Longa)
9	Ana Vissi	Den Me Agapas
10	Nacho Sotomayor	Don't Do Anything
11	Badmarsh & Siri	Sitar Ritual
12	Kodo	Strobe's Nanafushi (Satori Mix)
13	Livin' in Da Ghetto feat. MOKTAR	Arabian Song (Da Ghetto Fuckiro Club)

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above. Moving beyond English-speaking culture is always an eye-opening treat for me. And the views weren't bad, either.