Musicians/filmmakers Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman circled the globe for six months while soliciting contributions to 1 Giant Leap , a multicultural smorgasbord of music, images and commentary from an eclectic mix of artists, storytellers, musicians, philosophers, scientists and even porn stars. Working from a theme of "unity in diversity," Catto and Bridgeman began with a group of songs, recorded onto a laptop computer and then dragged around the world for augmentation by musicians of all types--not only studio performers, but native musicians with handmade instruments indigenous to their cultures. The music was then overlaid with evocative images and personal observations on a number of topics, including money, time, God, sex, death, confrontation and unity. Occasionally, the commentaries come across as a bit portentous (one woman describes music as something that reaches "the sweaty inner sanctum where the spirits of life live and move and breathe"), but the project's sincerity makes it easy to overlook some New Agey posturing here and there. The primary extras are additional music samples from far-off cultures, arranged separately by country. 1 Giant Leap is very avant-garde in approach, so tossing it into a music section next to the latest Britney Spears video just won't do. This disc appeals to a very specialized constituency and will require targeted promotion. --Ed Hulse