DnD Background Music Revisited - OA Edition

[JediSoth]

The soundtrack for [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Jade-Empire-Jack-Wall/dp/B0009UC7AC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1241187388&sr=8-1"]Jade Empire[/ame] would probably suit your purposes very well. It has music suitable for setting the mood in cities, in teahouses, battles, and just general exploration of the world.

 

[timbannock]

Wu Man has some great stuff.

Vas is cool (maybe a little more middle eastern, but there's definitely asian influence in there)

If you don't mind a more modern sound, the various Samurai Champloo soundtracks are great...but they are very modern (hip hop and jazz mixed with asian themes)

If you want HEAVY, Yakuza has a lot of eastern influences, and incorporates death metal, jazz, melodic thrash, grindcore, and other stuff.

A lot Delerium's instrumentals have asian influences all over them. Particularly Spiritual Archives, Nuages du Monde and Karma. Some parts of Spiritual Archives, too.

Serenity soundtrack & Firefly TV show soundtrack have moments of this.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

(I can't believe I'm responding to a 7 year old post)

There must be CDs for Japanese and Chinese operas.

There are, but to western ears Chinese operas sound hideous. There are few things I find more grating than Chinese opera, and I like a lot of odd tonal music.

I think Taiko drums (that's the word, right?) would be great for building suspense before a large battle.

Kodo has some good albums with traditional and non-traditional Japanese music, incorporating a lot of Taiko drums and Shakuhachi flutes.

 

[Grimstaff]

Try some Japanese Koto music. Its very unobtrusive, and sets the mood nicely.

 

[Herobizkit]

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!

Japanese drumming is also quite thrilling. Also, Cirque de Soleil recently had an Asian show that I am sure is full of wonderful Asian-style scores.