Descendants (In 79 Languages) – Steven Chesne (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

We hear the term “world music” used increasingly frequently in music writing today. It is applied to everything from authentic Balkan gypsy folk to Cuban jazz bands and from ancient indigenous sounds to the most cutting-edge dance music courtesy of a seemingly endless supply of Brooklyn-based digital rappers supposedly exploring their African heritage.

It is such a broad and vague term that it is almost meaningless, and it is only when you hear an album like Steven Chesne’s Descendants (In 79 Languages) do you truly understand what world music can really be.

Although reminiscent of Micheal Cretu’s work in the early nineties as Enigma, if that was the sound of dance music being flavored with cultural sounds, Descendants… feels like a work of sonic academia. As a comparative religion, mythology, and music student, Steven Chesne makes albums where all such timeless ideas meet, a wellspring of art and philosophy, culture and creativity. Not to mention empathy and understanding as a path to peace and togetherness. As he explains, “While the world struggles with fear and division, we must remind ourselves that we all descend from a common source—a unifying thread that binds us all together.”

To this end, Descendants is an album that not only weaves together soundscapes garnered from all corners of the world but, throughout these tracks, he threads the 79 different languages mentioned in the title. The album features an outstanding lineup of vocalists, everyone from platinum rap artist Fredo Bang to Uyanga Bold (renowned for Disney’s “Mulan” and Marvel’s “Spiderman”), Christina Hals (featured in “Frozen” 1 & 2 and “League of Legends”), and Chhom Nimol (frontwoman of “Peter Gabriel presents Dengue Fever“), members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, two-time Grammy winner Hila Plitmann, and dozens of indigenous and folk artists.

It’s an album designed to be played in its entirety; no track-hopping or single-song dipping of toes in the sonic water should be allowed here. It is an album to be savored, a chance to let its soundscapes of serenity and meditative musicality wash over you, an album to be experienced rather than listened to.

As the world becomes an ever darker place, as empathy and understanding seem in increasingly short supply, perhaps it is to the arts and, in particular, music that we need to turn to help heal the scars we have inflicted on this, the only planet that we have ever called home, both physical and intangible, on the earth itself and throughout our own community. And if that is the case, Descendants (In 79 Languages) is the perfect place to start this most gentle storming of the barricades.