Bei Dao is a dangerous man. After long days working his state-assigned construction job outside Beijing, he would spend his nights writing poetry. While other citizens slept, he and his friends would secretly meet to discuss poetry and then sneak out to paste up their poems throughout the city. Bei h

Angry, Dystopic, Lyrical, Misty poets, Spare, Spiritual

Asia is one of architecture's most fecund frontiers. The vast number of cultures, the rapid growth of its cities, and the global information network carrying in influences from all over the world -- all are sending Asian architects in radically new directions. Hamzah and Yeang are on the forefront of

Clever, Environmental architecture, Functional, Hi-tech, Modernist architecture, Political, Serene, Spiritual

In the new wave of Japanese contemporary music, Akira Nishimura is the front-runner for the "heterophonic concept." Using droning melodic variations, Nishimura creates a spacious kind of zen spikiness that can either calm the soul or mystify the mind. Nishimura exhibits a particular concern with t

20th-century music, Contemplative, Eclectic, Ethereal, Hypnotic, Layered, Silence, Spiritual

Multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry and classically trained singer Lisa Gerrard are both of Anglo-Irish heritage. They first met halfway around the world, however, in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981. There, they made their first recording and established their signature ethereal style. Soon after, they

Ethereal, Goth music, Hypnotic, Intimate, Lyrical, Moody, Pathos, Spiritual