A slight precursor of the Holding up Half the Sky series of albums on Shanachie, this album features female vocalists from around the world. The emphasis is on the exotic, so there's a bit of bias in the choice of songs made here, which focuses on the more mystical in sound more often than not. Many of the big names in female world music are here, but due to the exoticism, there's a noticeable lack of African artists. The emphasis is split pretty evenly between the mysticism of the subcontinent with choices such as Lakshmi Shankar, Najma, Nada Shakti (who's actually Czechoslovakian), and the voices of Northern Europe from around the time of the Celtic craze and the accompanying folklore revolutions of Scandinavia: Karan Casey, Kirsten Bråten Berg, and Talitha Mackenzie. In between, there are a few nods to the Native American traditions with Joanne Shenandoah and Pura Fe, and to the Middle Eastern set with Ofra Haza and Etti Ankri. There are some amazing voices to hear on this album, with a definite ethereal quality to the proceedings. The only notable omission would be some form of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. With the narrow set of music embraced here, the album does a good job of creating a meditative atmosphere, full of soaring voices. The other side of the coin would be that it tends to drag on with wordless vocals for extended stretches of ambience throughout. The musical quality is very high here, but the album will only really serve patient world music fans. ~ Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide