Etsuko Chida - Koto Kumiuta
Very beautiful Japanese music can be freely downloaded from the somewhat cryptic Shsk’h web site. Etsuko Chida plays koto and sings with a delicate voice that makes this traditional music quite pleasing and relaxing. There are three tracks at approximately 12 minutes each. This is a good introduction to both the koto and Japanese music in general.
The album is available in 256kbps MP3.
Download (click on “Vol. 2″)
Thank you very much, Marvin, for the review.
And, by the way, the name is : Shsk’h
Comment by Igor Ballereau — December 22, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
3rd song has a virus.
Comment by Jim — December 27, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
I scanned the three files myself with two separate programs and found no virus or other problems with the album. If you wish to email me with any more specifics, you can do so at freealbumsgalore@yahoo.com. I also emailed Shsk’h with this concern but right now I see nothing but an unsubstantiated claim. Did anyone else find something? Let me know. For the time being, I’ll keep the album post on.
Comment by Marvin — December 27, 2008 @ 10:14 pm
It’s not possible to have a virus in an MP3 file.
Comment by MusikRebell — December 30, 2008 @ 12:30 am
An update on the virus question. I contacted Igor, the webmaster of Shsk’h and this was his reply…
“First, thank you for your professionalism and contacting me about what could be a serious issue.
From hundreds of people who downloaded Vol.2 from our site I have not once heard of any problem whatsoever. Only truly cheerful comments on the music itself
To my knowledge these files are clean as clean can be. The only step in the process of “building” them that wasn’t totally in my control was the actual upload to the website via an FTP client…
Anyway, I just downloaded myself Etsuko’s songs like anybody would do and toroughly re-checked each of them with every anti-virus program I own without finding the slightest trace of anything.
So, you know, I wish [e-mail address deleted] were more specific in writing what could irresponsibly scare people and deprive them of such a beautiful experience.”
As stated before, my scans show no virus or any other problems. I also researched MusikRebell’s assertion that MP3 files cannot contain a virus and found this is true unless the file is actually something else disguised as a MP3 files. All three files for this album are clearly MP3s and nothing else.
Meanwhile, The original poster sent me a snapshot of a Mediafire scan showing a “virus” in the second, not third, file with no other specifics. In that e-mail Jim mentioned it could be a false positive. At this point, that is my assertion based on what I know but I posted this information so you can make the choice to download or not. I also highly recommend you regularly scan any file you download from the internet with a reliable anti-virus program as a safety precaution. Personally I listened repeatedly to this wonderful music with no problems and so have others. I appreciate the fact that people let me know if there was an issue. In the future though I will only investigate if the person follows up with a snapshot or a specific description of the problem. I do not want to scare people unnecessarily.
Comment by Marvin — January 1, 2009 @ 6:11 am
It looks like the problem lies with Mediafire.I hope you all enjoy the music.
Comment by Jim — January 2, 2009 @ 10:31 pm