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Loreena McKennitt: An Ancient Muse

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Quinland Road Records
Released: 1990
Time:
 54:28
Category: Celtic
Producer(s): Loreena McKennitt
Rating: *****..... (5/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.quinlanroad.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 1998
Price in €: 9,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Incantation (L.McKennitt) - 2:35
[2] The Gates of Istanbul (L.McKennitt) - 6:59
[3] Caravanserai (L.McKennitt) - 7:35
[4] The English Ladye and the Knight (L.McKennitt/Scott) - 6:48
[5] Kecharitomene [instrumental] (L.McKennitt) - 6:34
[6] Penelope's Song (L.McKennitt) - 4:21
[7] Sacred Shabbat [instrumental] (L.McKennitt) - 4:00
[8] Beneath a Phrygian Sky (L.McKennitt) - 9:29
[9] Never-Ending Road (Amhrán Duit) (L.McKennitt) - 8:32

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Loreena McKennitt - Percussion, Piano, Accordion, Arranger, Harp, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Liner Notes

Brian Hughes - Bouzouki, Electric Guitar, Oud, Engineer, Editing, Assistant Producer, Synth & Nylon String Guitar, Vocal Drone

Tal Bergman - Percussion, Drums
Daniel Blackman - Viola
Roman Borys - Cello
Stuart Bruce - Percussion, Engineer, Mixing, Vocal Drone
Manu Katche - Drums
Clive Deamer - Drums
Panos Dimitrakopoulos - Kanun
Nigel Eaton - Hurdygurdy
Ensemble Plus Ultra - Performer
Carol Lynn Fujino - Violin
Ben Grossman - Hurdygurdy
Ed Hanley - Tabla, Udu
Jason Hann - Percussion
Steafan Hannigan - Uillean Pipes, Vocal Director, Turkish Clarinet
Thomas Hobbs - Choir, Chorus
Louise Hogan - Viola
Bridget Hunt - Violin
Charlie Jones - Acoustic Bass
Evangelos Karipis - Percussion
Georgios Kontogiannis - Bouzouki
Petros Kourtis - Percussion, Krotala
Natasha Kraemer - Cello
Tim Landers - Bass
Caroline LaVelle - Cello
Rick Lazar - Percussion
Annbjørg Lien - Nyckelharpa
Hugh Marsh - Violin
Nicholas Morris - Performer
Andreas Papas - Percussion
Andy Pask - Acoustic Bass
Annalee Patipatanakoon - Violin
Alexander Pott - Performer
Hossam Ramzy - Percussion
Christopher Redfield - Viola
Carina Reeves - Cello
Wendy Rose - Violin
Socrates Sinopoulos - Lyra
Elliot Thompson - Performer
Haig Yazdjian - Oud
Malgorzata Ziemkiewicz - Viola

Lawrence Wallington - Choir, Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones - Choir, Chorus
Charles Pott - Choir, Chorus
Julian Empett - Choir, Chorus
David Martin - Choir, Chorus
John Welsman - String Arrangements
Brian Gascoigne - Arranger, String Arrangements
Donald Quan - Viola, Production Assistant, Vocal Drone

Marco Migliari - Engineer, Digital Editing, Editing, Assistant Engineer, Vocal Drone
Jeff Wolpert - Engineer, Editing, Mixing
Gabe Moffett - Engineer
Ben Findlay - Engineer
Frank Wolf - Engineer, Editing
Steve Price - Engineer, Editing
Kevin Killen - Engineer, Editing
Brian Nebin - Engineer, Editing
Kostas Mouroulis - Engineer, Editing
Paul Klingberg - Engineer, Editing
Kostas Kousoulos - Engineer, Editing
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Jeremy Murphy - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Gordy Davidson - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Lewis Jones - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Paul Grady - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Claire Lewis - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Dominic Monks - Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer
Demetris Koilalous - Photography
Ann Cutting - Photography
Claude Gortin - Translation
Ann Reid Reynolds - Translation
Selina Stewart - Translation
Dafni Viorre - Translation
Ange Zhang - Illustrations

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2006 CD Verve 7920
2006 CD Quinlan Road 109

       

Produced by the Canadian singer/composer herself, An Ancient Muse is, McKennitt says, a work of "musical travel writing". Drawing on research and literary musings that took her from the steppes of Mongolia to Ireland's western shores and the islands of the Mediterranean, McKennitt takes her inspiration from the Celtic peoples, fusing the melodic sensibility of Scottish and Irish balladry with musical traditions from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and even Scandinavia. Beginning with an invocation inspired by Homer's Odyssey -- "Tell me, O Muse, of those who traveled far and wide"-- its nine tracks take the listener around the globe, across the ages and into the stories of a wondrous cast of characters. We hear the voices of a Scottish knight and his English lady, united by love and divided by strife; adventurers of the Silk Road approaching the gates of Istanbul; a Byzantine princess who witnessed the Crusades; the wandering Celts who claimed King Midas' lands; and Odysseus' faithful wife Penelope, scanning the wine-dark seas for his return. From the sinuous grooves of "Caravanserai" to the elegiac echoes of "The English Ladye and The Knight" and the plaintive refrain of "Penelope's Song," the album boasts an exotic tapestry of instruments: harp, hurdy-gurdy, uilleann pipes, cello, kanoun, Turkish clarinet, lyra, bouzouki and nyckelharpa. Supporting musicians include Brian Hughes, Hugh Marsh, Caroline Lavelle, Manu Katché, Rick Lazar, Nigel Eaton, Steafan Hannigan, Tal Bergman, Tim Landers and Greek musicians Panos Dimitrakopoulos, Socratis Sinopoulos, Haig Yazdjian and Giorgios Kontogiannis, along with acclaimed string players and members of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey. In an age whose uncertainties and strife make it perhaps not so very distant from eras long past, An Ancient Muse's theme, McKennitt suggests, is that we can learn lessons from history if we choose to do so - by remembering those very particular places in time when religious harmony and cultural fusion brought diverse societies together. "I have not wavered in my conviction," she observes in the written introduction to An Ancient Muse, "that we are a culmination of our collective histories, and that there should be more to bind us together than tear us apart."



Canadian singer/composer Loreena McKennitt is self-managed, self-produced, and the head of her own internationally successful record label, Quinlan Road. In a recording career spanning nearly two decades, McKennitt's "eclectic Celtic" music has won critical acclaim worldwide and gold, platinum and multi-platinum sales awards in fifteen countries across four continents. Born in the province of Manitoba, Canada, Loreena moved to Stratford, Ontario, Canada in 1981, where she still resides. She has acted and sung in, and composed music for, Stratford Festival of Canada productions ranging from The Tempest (1982) to The Merchant Of Venice (2001). Her recording career began in 1985 with the album Elemental. In the fledgling years of her label Quinlan Road, Loreena ran its operations from her kitchen table, selling recordings by mail order and producing her own concert tours across the country.Loreena continues to manage her career from her Stratford base. An active member of her community, she has founded and oversees important charitable undertakings in the fields of water safety and family/childhood support services.



It's been nearly a decade since Loreena McKennitt's last studio album, The Book of Secrets, but An Ancient Muse picks up the caravan exactly where she left off on her mystical journey through the cultures of the Middle East and northern Sahara. The Canadian singer opens this album the same way as she did her last two recordings: with an incantation, calling out in a wordless voice across an echoing space, cleansing the air and the mind. What follows is a lot like those albums as well, a pan-global excursion centered on Middle Eastern themes and instruments cast into a dramatic exotica. Oud, dumbek, kanoun, hurdy-gurdy, duduk, nyckleharpe (a Swedish-keyed fiddle), and other ancient sounds from the region and beyond ornament her music, though "ornament" might no longer be accurate. With the exception of Hugh Marsh's gypsy violin solos and a handful of other players, it's the Western instruments that serve as ornaments on An Ancient Muse. McKennitt long ago evolved the Celtic sound that launched her career. She's virtually abandoned the harp, which hasn't appeared on her CDs since 1991's The Visit. The lone uillean pipe on "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" sounds like an echo calling from the McKennitt's past. Nevertheless, the Celtic ballad form remains central to her music, and she still draws inspiration from ye olde writers of the British Isles. Lyrics from Sir Walter Scott adorn "The English Ladye and the Knight," recalling "The Lady of Shalott." But despite McKennitt's soaring alto, the tale drags under the dirge-like meter and ponderous arrangement. The epic track of this album is the aforementioned "Beneath a Phrygian Sky," with distorted electric guitar accents and an acoustic guitar melody carrying McKennitt on another journey into her romanticized version of the ancient world.

John Diliberto - Amazon.com



Besonders produktiv ist die 1957 in Morden, Manitoba, geborenen kanadische Sängerin und Komponistin in den letzten Jahren nun nicht gerade gewesen. Aber statt Quantität liefert Loreena McKennitt lieber mit jeden Album ein neues Meisterwerk introvertierter Songwriterkunst ab. An Ancient Muse ist eine weitere Bestätigung dieser Regel. Neun Jahre nach The Book Of Secrets, ihrem letzten Studiowerk, lässt sie uns auch diesmal wieder teilhaben an einer einzigartigen musikalischen Reise, deren Einflüsse in alle denkbaren Himmelsrichtungen reichen, von Griechenland und Schottland über Spanien, die Türkei und Irland bis hin nach Skandinavien. Mit einem so reichhaltigen und vielfältigen Klangkosmos wie bei diesen neun Songs wird man gerade in der aktuellen Popmusik nur äußerst selten konfrontiert. Loreena McKennitt hat sich mit ihrem siebten Studioalbum, eingespielt in den Real World Studios in England, einmal mehr selbst übertroffen. Für sie scheint es keine Beschränkungen zu geben. Mit bemerkenswerter Leichtigkeit überwindet sie mühelos alle Genreschranken, so, als hätten sie nie existiert. Kein Wunder, das sie ihre neue Platte mit dem Erfinden eines neuen Rezepts vergleicht. Mitgeholfen bei der Umsetzung ihrer Ideen vertraute Wegbegleiter wie Brian Hughes, Donald Quan, Hugh Marsh, Caroline Lavelle und Rock Lazar. Es fällt schwer, aus diesem kompakten Gesamtkunstwerk ein paar Songs herauszuheben. Eine besondere Erwähnung verdient hat jedoch auf jeden Fall der Titel "The English Ladye And The Knight", der auf einem Gedicht von Sir Walter Scott basiert. Eine faszinierende Klangmeditation, angereichert mit Cellos, Violinen und Gamben, die nicht zuletzt durch ihre außergewöhnliche Tonsprache fasziniert.

Norbert Schiegl - Amazon.de



Wie kann es sein, dass die kanadische Sängerin Loreena McKennitt fast 13 Millionen Exemplare ihrer bisher sieben Studioalben verkauft hat? Die Dame hat doch nur einen einzigen, endlosen Song zu bieten: den mit den keltischen Einflüssen. Auch auf der neuen CD "An Ancient Muse" (SPV) dasselbe einlullende Mysterienspiel: warm, entspannend, nebenwirkungsarm. Eine akustische Fangopackung.

Tobias Schmitz - Stern



Canadian Celtic/new age/worldbeat architect Loreena McKennitt may be an odd choice for the legendary jazz label that released benchmark albums from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, but Verve may have been moved by the undeniably talented harpist/composer/vocalist's large collection of globe-spanning gold, platinum, and multi-platinum sales awards. McKennitt's records (this is her first set of new material since 1997's Book of Secrets) tend to play like independent soundtracks to National Geographic documentaries -- kind of like a more ornate, expensive version of Dead Can Dance. An Ancient Muse may break little new ground for McKennitt, but it won't disappoint longtime fans. Her fascination with Celtic, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern instrumentation (hurdy-gurdy, nyckelharpa, kanoun, uilleann pipes, bouzouki, lyra, and oud) and her preoccupation with mythology and poetry have won her great favor with the new age/adult alternative crowd, and rightly so, as Irish-tinged ballads such as "Never-Ending Road (Amhrán Duit)" and "Penelope's Song" are just Enya songs with more instruments than vocal tracks. Her penchant for quality instrumentals, in this case "Kecharitomene" and "Sacred Shabbat," sets her apart from the more stereotypical new age artists like David Arkenstone and John Tesh, and her extensive, diary-like liner notes invoke ancient archeological sites and obscure Rumi poetry without coming off as too self-absorbed.

James Christopher Monger - All Music Guide

 

 L y r i c s


Incantation

Insrumental


The Gates of Istanbul

See there, past that far-off hill
A tower held in the sky
Hear there, in that dark blue night
The music calling us home

See there, in that far-off field
Flowers turned to the sky
Feel there, in that dark blue night
The music calling us home

Stars may always guide our way,
From desert sands where winds blow harsh and long
But here's where, where our hearts will pray
And all our loves will slumber with a song

Stars may always guide our way,
From desert sands where winds blow harsh and long
Here's where our hearts will pray
And all our loves will slumber with a song

So now, if our hearts be true
And like a pool of truth reflect the sun
We will find right honour there
And keep us safe and lead us from all harm

So come love, let us dance all night
Until the birds they waken at the dawn
Then come love, let us sing all night
And all our loves will slumber with a song

Then come love, let us dance all night
Until the birds they waken at the dawn
Then come love, let us sing all night
And all our loves will slumber with a song
   

Caravanserai

This glancing life is like a morning star
A setting sun, or rolling waves at sea
A gentle breeze or lightning in a storm
A dancing dream of all eternity

The sand was shimmering in the morning light
And dancing off the dunes so far away
The night held music so sweet, so long
And there we lay until the break of day

We woke that morning at the onward call
Our camels bridled up, our howdahs full
The sun was rising in the eastern sky
Just as we set out to the desert's cry

Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you

The tents grew smaller as we rode away
On earth that tells of many passing days
The months of peace and all the years of war
The lives of love and all the lives of fears

Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you

We crossed the river beds all etched in stone
And up the mighty mountains ever known
Beyond the valleys in the searing heat
Until we reached the caravanserai

Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you

What is this life that pulls me far away
What is that home where we cannot reside
What is that quest that pulls me onward
My heart is full when you are by my side

Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you

The English Ladye and the Knight

It was an English ladye bright,
(The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,)
And she would marry a Scottish knight,
For Love will still be lord of all.

Blithely they saw the rising sun
When he shone fair on Carlisle wall;
But they were sad ere day was done,
Though Love was still the lord of all.


Kecharitomene

Instrumantal


Penelope's Song

Now that the time has come
Soon gone is the day
There upon some distant shore
You'll hear me say

Long as the day in the summer time
Deep as the wine dark sea
I'll keep your heart with mine.
Till you come to me.

There like a bird I'd fly
High through the air
Reaching for the sun's full rays
Only to find you there

And in the night when our dreams are still
Or when the wind calls free
I'll keep your heart with mine
Till you come to me

Now that the time has come
Soon gone is the day
There upon some distant shore
You'll hear me say

Long as the day in the summer time
Deep as the wine dark sea
I'll keep your heart with mine.
Till you come to me


Scared Shabbath

Instrumental


Beneath A Phrygian Sky

The moonlight it was dancing
On the waves, out on the sea
The stars of heaven hovered
In a shimmering galaxy

A voice from down the ages
So haunting in its song
These ancient stones will tell us
Our love must make us strong

The breeze it wrapped around me
As I stood there on the shore
And listened to this voice
Like I never heard before

Our battles they may find us
No choice may ours to be
But hold the banner proudly
The truth will set us free

My mind was called across the years
Of rages and of strife
Of all the human misery
And all the waste of life

We wondered where our God was
In the face of so much pain
I looked up to the stars above
To find you once again

We travelled the wide oceans
Heard many call your name
With sword and gun and hatred
It all seemed much the same

Some used your name for glory
Some used it for their gain
Yet when liberty lay wanting
No lives were lost in vain

Is it not our place to wonder
As the sky does weep with tears
And all the living creatures
Look on with mortal fear

It is ours to hold the banner
Is ours to hold it long
It is ours to carry forward
Our love must make us strong

And as the warm wind carried
Its song into the night
I closed my eyes and tarried
Until the morning light

As the last star it shimmered
And the new sun's day gave birth
It was in this magic moment
Came this prayer for mother earth

Reprise:

The moonlight it was dancing
On the waves, out on the sea
The stars of heaven hovered
In a shimmering galaxy

A voice from down the ages
So haunting in its song
The ancient stones will tell us
Our love must make us strong


Never-ending Road

The road now leads onward
As far as can be
Winding lanes
And hedgerows in threes
By purple mountains
And round every bend
All roads lead to you
There is no journey's end.

Here is my heart and I give it to you
Take me with you across this land
These are my dreams, so simple and so few
Dreams we hold in the palm of our hands

Deep in the winter
Amidst falling snow
High in the air
Where the bells they all toll
And now all around me
I feel you still here
Such is the journey
No mystery to fear.

Here is my heart and I give it to you
Take me with you across this land
These are my dreams, so simple and so few
Dreams we hold in the palm of our hands

The road now leads onward
And I know not where
I feel in my heart
That you will be there
Whenever a storm comes
Whatever our fears
The journey goes on
As your love ever nears

Here is my heart and I give it to you
Take me with you across this land
These are my dreams, so simple and so few
Dreams we hold in the palm of our hands


 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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