The highly-anticipated period sword-fighting movie, starring Chow Yun Fat (or Zhou Run Fa), Michelle Yeoh (or Yang Zi Qiong) and Chang Chen (or Zhang Zhen who used to be a singer himself), is directed by acclaimed Asian director Ang Lee (or Li An).  It is scheduled for an Asia-wide release in July.

With a total of fifteen tracks, the soundtrack only contains two vocal pieces, both by CoCo Lee (the rest are instrumental tunes).  She sang the Mandarin and the English versions of the theme-song "A Love Before Time".  Composed by Jorge Calandrelli and Tan Dun, the Chinese lyrics of this Oriental-sounding number is written by Kevin Yi and vocally produced by Paula Ma Yu Fen.  It also features an intro & ending cello solo by Yo-Yo Ma.

BACK TO TOP

Background info : she's a Singaporean, twenty-two years old, she started playing the piano at the age of five and she first caught the attention of Warner record execs when she was visiting Li Si Song's studio for the recording session of Sammi Cheng.

Her debut album is produced by the two most prominent set of twins in the music biz : Bao Xiao Song/Bao Xiao Bo from Taiwan and Li Si Song/Li Wei Song from Singapore.

Her first single "Cloudy Day" is a nice ballad composed by Li Si Song and adapts a small music piece from a Hokkien song.

Other recommended songs by the record company include the dance track "Turbo" composed by Bao Xiao Bo and the country-feel ballad "Love Document" composed by Li Si Song and written by Xu Shi Zhen.

BACK TO TOP

Partly recorded in Boston USA and partly in Taiwan, this current offering can be billed as the most complete Lee Hom's work to date.  Without the help of Jim Lee anymore, the entire album is solely produced by Lee Hom.  All the eleven tracks (with the exception of one cover song) are composed by Lee Hom with some of the lyrics written by him as well.  The music is a mix of R&B, rap, dance, rock, ballad and classical.  His works which are finally included in this album are reportedly selected painstakingly from over forty other compositions that he churned out in 1999.  With such a heavy workload, no wonder he has grown a goatee and moustache over the year, but his fans may be glad to know that he has finally picked up the shaver and presently he's spotting the same clean-cut image as before.

The first single cum title track "Forever's First Day" is a beautiful ballad with the lyrics written by Yi Jia Yang.

The second single holds a special significance to Lee Hom.  Not only is he doing a cover of his uncle Li Jian Fu's symbolic song "Descendants Of The Dragon"  (or Long De Chuan Ren), year 2000 is also the year of the Dragon and to top it up, his Chinese horoscope is also the Dragon.  For those listeners who hold a special affinity to the original Oriental song, they may probably faint when they hear Lee Hom's very much Western-influenced  version.  The new cover has become a techno-dance track which is complemented with Lee Hom's own English rap lyrics and additional Mandarin lyrics which revolve around the stories of his parents and his family.

There is a beginning interlude track titled "Introduction" which features a short live performance by the New England Music Conservatory Honors String Quartet, which is interspersed with Lee Hom's own vocal dialogue.

BACK TO TOP

Liu Hung Hua (or Ginny) has released her second solo album.  She has revamped her image this time round by opting for a cool and refreshing summer look.  (Side-note : she is reportedly going to Japan later this year to further her music career).

The twelve-track album is produced by a few people including Chen Wei, the twins Bao Xiao Bo and Bao Xiao Song, music arranger Wang Ji Kang and Huang Yi.

Like her debut album "What's The Matter", different first singles are aired in Taiwan and Singapore.  The first single in Taiwan is the light-tempo & easy-listening title track "Dancing Alone" composed, arranged and produced by Wang Ji Kang.  On the other hand, the first single being heard over the radio waves in Singapore is called "Drop" which is a repetitious-sounding and light-tempo rave track, also composed, arranged and produced by Wang Ji Kang.

The second single is the country-folk mid-tempo track "Do You Love Me" which is composed by Chen Zi Hong and written by Shi Ren Cheng.  There are two different music versions of this song, one arranged by Huang Zhong Yue while the other one by Chen Wei.

A note-worthy mention is that she did a cover song "Left Ear" of Norwegian teenage sensation Lene Marlin's first hit "Unforgiveable Sinner".  Finally, her colleague Mountain (or Gao Shan Feng) chipped in to write the lyrics of one of the songs called "Time Tickling".

BACK TO TOP