Tau'a, the wordsmith with the wisdom of numerous Maui stories, asked Kauahikaua, with his fertile music mind, to help interpret and re-imagine these tales for a new kind of Island experience. All tunes are the collaborative efforts of the pair; Tau'a composed one of the 12 tracks alone. All are sung in Hawaiian, with an enlightening liner booklet with lyrics and brief descriptions of content, but it's the force and the energy of the tunes that set this one apart from the field.

"Cloud Warriors" is an inventive and refreshing take on old themes with a modern twist. Hawaiian in tongue, but contemporary in tempo and structure — like a new path to folk music, if Hawaiian can be termed "folk," being born.

"Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" swimmingly tracks that famous fish, but re-examined with a jazzy undercurrent, instead of the hapa-haole hula-friendly refrain most people remember from a lu'au experience.

"Kealaikahiki," about a passageway for Hawaiian voyagers between Kaho'olawe and Lana'i, probably is the closest to a "Hawaiian" mele in the roster, but the backbeat certainly makes this also a popster.

"Pueo Hoot Hoot" is about the owl 'aumakua revered in Hawaiian culture; again, tradition melds with modern styles. And a bit of old-fashioned fun on "Pu'unene," dealing with pidgin and communication amid multicultural elements.

You feel like you're soaring with Superman on "Can You Read My Mind," the superhero's aerial theme. You're swept into the heartbeat of Agent 007 on "The James Bond Theme." You're among the clouds, the forests, the cityscape on "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Ice Castles," "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," "Unchained Melody" — themes from wondrous films with lasting memories.

Samson's eloquent ivory work is the stuff of a virtuoso; he makes a living playing piano in clubs and lounges, where he turns in concert-hall-calibre performances. With savvy engineering by Pierre Grill, this CD — sweetly dedicated to his late sister, Nor, because they were among her cherished favorites — is his latest "concert" awaiting applause.

Paa adapts treasures as "Waikiki," "Akaka Falls" and "Pua Lilia" and ramps up the tunes to concert-hall integrity with precision and respect. His "Manoa" and "Classical Hula" originals evoke images of the verdant valley and hula in motion, respectively. And the marriage of "Honolulu City Lights" and "Aloha 'Oe" throbs with the kind of sentiments you get when you hop on a plane.

Of particular interest: "Ka Nohona Pili Kai" is another oldie juiced up with music-box-like twinkle.

He decks the halls with a bevy of tunes you can sing along to, like "We Need a Little Christmas" and "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas." Local fave Sonny Lim performs, too, for an added gift.