Freeform – Audiotourism. Original Music. (Vietnam And China)

I recall having read a review of this album in a magazine several times ago, so I was interested in how Freeform's "audiotourism" in Vietnam and China sounds. Purchased it one year ago, and till today I'm not knowing what this album wants to tell, or generally, what it is all about. From musical point it's not more than mediocre. Leaving aside the audio data that was collected during the voyage in the East, it's just westerner's new-age-y keyboard music with a certain lounge vibe, but with no obvious influence of the travels or of these two impressing countries themselves. Adding the samples of traditional instruments and field recordings makes the tracks not more familiar, but mere abstract, and some of these samples seem, to be honest, almost misplaced and unfitting. The album carries only few emotions, and two, three times one feels the question arising if Freeform enjoyed this trip or not. Facing this while playing it, the whole concept fails to open up. At least for me. The booklet contains a chart of the used samples and maps of their origin, but both doesn't help to get into sound and meaning, it's more like a funny add-on to some designed frame of media that I can't decode. The most notable part of the whole release are photographs and snapshots that, finally, give at least some imaginable impressions of how the mapped sample spots look like.
I'm sure Freeform had great experiences and a nice time in Asia, but its secrets remain unrevealed - at least for the listener of this CD -, and I'm doubting if anybody else will follow to what he had in mind there, and/or while doing these tracks.
Three stars - but not because of this art(?) concept album, mainly because I've seen some of these places by myself.