Last year, did I say it was a great year for Echoes music? Well, I'd have to say that again for 2005.

It seemed like every month brought interesting music and much of it from unusual sources, often in places we hadn't looked before.

Once again, the Echoes Listener Poll and the staff-generated 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2005 provided a study in contrasts and congruency.

Notably, the listeners' number one pick, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble's Beyond the Horizon, placed in the middle of the Essential List, while our #1 pick, Laurel MacDonald's serene Luscinia's Lullaby was nowhere to be found in the listeners' consciousness. More about that CD later.

Listen to an interview feature with Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble

Listen to an interview feature with Laurel MacDonald

Echoes remains uniquely placed for music that explores the serene over the sentimental. Harold Budd, the godfather of ambient chamber music, creates achingly beautiful melodies marked by an unremitting sense of melancholy and atmosphere on Avalon Sutra. It was supposed to be his swansong, but reports are that Budd will continue dusting his keyboards with feathers. <more>

The Ambient Americana movement I predicted last year hasn't quite developed yet but guitars making surf and psychedelic sounds were certainly present. Tristeza, a veteran group from California, returned with a new line-up and their most evocative album yet, A Colores. One tune after another articulates variations on dramatic pacific sunsets and the darkside of the mood. <more>

Singers still enchanted us in mysterious ways this year. The Mediaeval Baebes have certainly transcended the gimmick of eight gorgeous women decked out in antique vamp wardrobes. Their original compositions especially take advantage of their diaphanous close harmonies on Mirabilis.

Mariam Matossian was a darkhorse entry. This Canadian singer intones Armenian hymns and lullabies on Far From Home. Even bassist/synthesist Paul Avgerinos got in on the act with his album of mournful gothic hymns, Phos Hilaron, on which he multi-tracked his own voice into soothing choirs.

But the vocal CD that really turned us around was Laurel MacDonald's Luscinia's Lullaby. We'd been impressed with Laurel's music before, but Luscinia's Lullaby seemed to bring her many divergent strains together in a mix of ecstatic vocal choirs that were both folkloric and avant-garde. With producer Philip Strong, she seamlessly weaves in electronic arrangements, her voice intoning gothic chants one moment, and Meredith Monk meets Sigur Ros the next. An album that challenges and affirms, it wasn't an obvious choice for our number one CD, but it was the clear choice.

World fusion has been a signpost of Echoes from the beginning, but this was the first year where there didn't seem to be many important CDs in the genre. Yo-Yo Ma and Afro Celt Sound System with Anatomic, number one and two on the Listener Poll, tower over the field for the scope of their vision.

But there are still some wonderful jewels including Anoushka Shankar's first non-traditional album. <more>