THOUGH I have long been a follower of the local pop scene, it came as a surprise to find proof that Hong Kong is finally on the cutting edge of contemporary music. Serenading Libby Wong For Charity goes where no pop album has gone before, making new demands on jaded ears and re-defining singing for the '90s. A spoken introduction by noted rap artist Sir Sze-yuen Chung leads to Dr David Fang Jin-sheng's cover of What A Wonderful World. An avowed traditionalist, Dr Fang also contributes I Left My Heart In San Francisco, offering a trenchant commentary on the state of modern cardiology. Ophthalmology comes under similar scrutiny in Dr Margaret Chan's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Most listeners will consider Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong's reappraisal of Love Me Tender, full of subtleties in pitch and meter, as the high point of the collection, but the boldness of the Honourable Michael Ho Mun-ka's Born Free challenges one more and more with each listening. On Everlasting Love Dr Darling Lee and Don Allison are in a class by themselves. Now we come to the centrepiece of the recording, a collaborative version of How Much Is That Doggie In The Window, here rendered as hip-hop tour de force, including the sampled voice of Chris Patten's Whisky and Soda, easily the territory's most innovative dogs. Miss Jacqueline Willis and company are careful to avoid an overly self-indulgent interpretation that would disturb the delicate absurdist poetic structure of the lyrics: We don't want a kitten who will scratch him, We don't want a parrot that talks, We don't want a bowl full of goldfish, You can't take a fish for a walk. With artists like these, nothing can be taken for granted. We Are The World, the grand finale, is done with a deliberate innocence that makes the song almost corny, if one could imagine that. This record signals a pop renaissance in the territory, and I suggest everyone spend the cash - remember it's for charity - to buy one immediately. And while we're at it, let's keep an eye out for other discs released - or should we say discharged - by the Prince of Wales Hospital. Medical records were never like this before.