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Loreena McKennitt: Lost Souls

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Quinlan Road
Released: 2018.05.11
Time:
 48:14
Category: Folk, Celtic, World
Producer(s): Loreena McKennitt
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.loreenamckennitt.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2018
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Spanish Guitars and Night Plazas (L.McKennitt) - 6:42
[2] A Hundred Wishes (L.McKennitt) - 4:34
[3] Ages Past, Ages Hence (L.McKennitt) - 5:27
[4] The Ballad of the Fox Hunter (L.McKennitt/WB.Yeats) - 5:48
[5] Manx Ayre (L.McKennitt) - 4:03
[6] La Belle Dame sans Merci (J.Keats/L.McKennitt) - 6:09
[7] Sun, Moon and Stars (L.McKennitt) - 4:34
[8] Breaking of the Sword (L.McKennitt) - 5:30
[9] Lost Souls (L.McKennitt) - 5:11

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


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

Brian Hughes - Assistant Producer, Bouzouki, Electric Guitar, Synthesizer
Dudley Phillips - Acoustic & Electric Bass
Ana Alcaide - Nyckelharpa
Tal Bergman - Drums, Percussion
Robert Brian - Drums, Percussion
Daniel Casares - Flamenco Guitar, Handclapping
Panos Dimitrakopoulos - Kanonaki
Nigel Eaton - Hurdygurdy
Graham Hargrove - Antique Cymbal, Bass Drums, Snare Drums
Ian Harper - Highland Bagpipe
Caroline LaVelle - Cello, Concertina
Rick Lazar - Percussion
Hugh Marsh - Violin
Hossam Ramzy - Percussion
Miguel Ortiz Ruvira - Handclapping, Percussion
Sokratis Sinopoulos - Lyra
Michael White - Trumpet
Haig Yazdjian - Oud

Mark McCauley - Assistant Producer
Stuart Bruce - Engineer on [1,3,5,7,9], Mixing on [1-7,9], Additional Recording on [2,6]
Jeff Wolpert - Engineer on [8], Mixing on [8]
Yossi Shakked - Engineer on [1,2,7-8]
Oli Jacobs - Assistant Engineer
Tristan Miller - Assistant Engineer
Mike Monson - Assistant Engineer
Scott Peacock - Assistant Engineer
Patrick Phillips - Assistant Engineer
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Robert Buckley - Arranger
Ann Cutting - Photography
York Tillyer - Photo of Loreena McKennitt
Jeri Heiden - Graphic Design
Diane Sewell - Copy Editing
Andrea Boswell - Management
Ian Blackaby - Management
Stacey Clark - Management

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2018 CD Quinlan Road - QRCD117
2018 LP Quinlan Road - QRLP117

Tracks [1,2,6-8] recorded at the Catherine North Studios, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Tracks [1-9] recorded at Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire, UK
Track [8] additional recordings at Canadian Forces Central Band Facility, Ottawa, Ontario, and Knox Church, Stratford, Ontario
Mastered at the Gateway Mastering.

Daniel Casares appears courtesy of Green Cow Music.
Sokratis Sinopoulos appears courtesy of ECM Records.
Performance of the Central Band of the Canadian Armed Forces courtesy of the Department of National Defence.




I chose to collect and complete this poesy of songs being reminded of the maze of days when they were born.

Upon listening, I reflect on the many hours spent with a glorious feast of musicians, deep in the beauty of the English Wiltshire countryside.

Some of these songs were begun years ago. At times, they have felt like Lost Souls, not having found a home on any of my previous recordings. Like unexpected travellers, they appeared on the path of previous journeys. While some of these songs have no direct connection to my pursuit of the history of the Celts, they are eager to find a resting place nonetheless. Like the hymn Amazing Grace, ‘I once was lost, but now am found’.

I think of a vagabond, who when wandering the street late at night, was stopped by a policeman and asked why he was out so late, to which he replied, “if I knew the answer to that question I would have been home hours ago.”

Perhaps we are not lost, just taking a long time returning home.

– LM


SONG NOTES
 

SPANISH GUITARS AND NIGHT PLAZAS
The first part of this piece came into being while I was working on The Visit in 1990. Images of sensual evenings spent in plazas in Spain and the Mediterranean seemed to be burned into my mind, enriched with the aroma of jasmine

A HUNDRED WISHES
There are those who leave on journeys and those who are left behind. In whatever way separation manifests itself, it is comforting to remember the time spent with a loved one creating memories. This is another song I wrote during the same era as The Visit.

AGES PAST AGES HENCE
Ancient peoples, be they the Norse or the Celts, instinctively knew their lives were closely interwoven with the company of trees. Not only did they provide and protect the necessities of life by way of air and water, they were also the habitat for other living creatures. The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben, suggests that trees have a rich inner life of their own, while Ronald Wright’s A Short History of Progress, argues that the damage done to the earth’s forests may historically be one of our greatest sins.

THE BALLAD OF THE FOX HUNTER
Not only have I always had a dog, I have spent much time marvelling at the special and unique relationships shared by many different species. This poem by W.B. Yeats, which I set to music somewhere in the late 1980s, seems to capture some of that special connection.

MANX AYRE
In my earliest days of busking, this was one of the pieces I would perform during my 15-minute set. I gathered it in Winnipeg, Canada during my early years of connecting with Celtic music.

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
Struck by the imagery of this poem, the longing and the mystery, I sought to put it to music in 2006 while working on An Ancient Muse.

SUN, MOON and STARS
Turn towards the rising sun at the mountain, walk for five days and you will find the oasis by a big rock.’ Such were the directions of desert nomads. Or the songs lines of the indigenous people of Australia. The celestial and physical worlds have long provided the reference points for our navigation. Partially inspired by a Moldavian folk melody, this song is a tribute to that ancient knowledge.

BREAKING OF THE SWORD
The inspiration for this piece came to me during a visit to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France while reflecting on all who had perished there. In this song, I am reminded that all families mourn the loss of their loved one, and that loss transcends borders, cultures and time itself. The soldier’s family mourns, the military ‘family’ mourns, and so does the community from which the soldier came.

LOST SOULS
It is inevitable during one’s life to reflect on where we have come from, what we have done and where we are headed. Whenever one journey ends, another begins and we know not where it will lead. Are we lost souls to an unknown destiny, or simply part of a greater journey than we.

loreenamckennitt.com



The Canadian singer/songwriter's first full-length collection of original material since 2006's Ancient Muse, Lost Souls sees Loreena McKennitt delivering another richly detailed and alluringly cinematic set of worldbeat-infused, modern-folk pieces that hearken back to career-defining albums like The Visit, The Mask and Mirror, and The Book of Secrets. It's the latter LP that's echoed the most - McKennitt states in the liner notes that a number of the songs were written around the time of The Visit - with the elegant balladry of "Lost Souls" and the moving Canadian Forces Central Band and Stratford Concert Choir-assisted "Breaking of the Sword" invoking that album's emotional high point: Her lush musical rendering of the Alfred Tennyson poem "Lady of Shalott." Once again, McKennitt looks to poetry for inspiration, with W.B.Yeats and John Keats providing the narratives for "The Ballad of the Fox Hunter" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," respectively, while she cites the works of authors Peter Wohlleben (The Hidden Life of Trees) and Ronald Wright (A Short History of Progress) as the motivation behind the evocative and ecologically minded "Ages Past, Ages Hence." While McKennitt continues to incorporate Galician and Middle Eastern themes into her work - opener "Spanish Guitars & Night Plazas" builds to a lovely flamenco crescendo, and "Sun, Moon, & Stars" invokes the sights, sounds, and smells of a Moroccan bazaar - the bulk of Lost Souls is spent wandering the English countryside. It makes sense, as McKennitt's early work was predominantly Celtic in nature, and despite a dizzying area of exotic instrumentation - nyckelharpa, oud, kanoun, lyra, hurdy gurdy, etc. - it's clear that the rolling hills and temperate moors of the United Kingdom, as well as the extensive vistas of her Canadian homeland, are where her heart resides.

Rating: 4/5

James Christopher Monger - All Music Gide



Lost Souls is Loreena McKennitt’s tenth studio album, and her first album of original material since 2006’s An Ancient Muse. She has  released albums since An Ancient Muse (2008’s A Midwinter Night’s Dream and 2010’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley) but those albums were comprised of brilliant arrangements of traditional material. Lost Souls is pure McKennitt, and as good as her last two albums were, and they were genius, it is so nice to have an album of her original  writing.

A great deal has happened in McKennitt’s life since 2006, both personally and professionally, and although this album is a collection of ‘leftovers’ from previous albums, one cannot help but hear some of what she has experienced expressed in the music, melodies and arrangements. Simply put, this albums feels personal and yet welcoming to all who wish to join her. Lost Souls is sheer beauty and brilliance.

Given that these songs were never intended to co-exist as a collection, it is even more astounding that they form such a consistent album. Here McKennitt has rediscovered songs from the past that did not fit on the contemporary albums of the time. She has brought together musicians with whom she has worked with in the past (Brian Hughes, Hugh Marsh and Caroline Lavelle to name just three) and has reworked these songs so they all fit together nicely in this package.

The instrumental performance is inspirational, and McKennitt’s voice has never sounded so good. One hears the emotion in her voice as she sings, especially in songs such as “A Hundred Wishes” and the staggeringly beautiful “Breaking Of The Sword”, a song inspired by McKennitt’s participation in the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge. “Is it now a mother’s blessing, That the country’s truly free?” she sings. When the Stratford Concert Choir joins McKennitt, who performs the song wih The Central Band of the Armed Forces, the emotion is almost overwhelming. It is a beautiful piece of music and some of the most stirring lyrics set to music.

Of course no Loreena McKennitt album is complete without instrumentals, and the two included in this album “Sun, Moon and Stars” and “Manx Ayre” are exquisite.

Lost Souls is about lost souls, both as songs and as people. Thankfully Ms. McKennitt has brought them all together into one strong, solid album. And she invites all to join the lost souls, as she does with her listeners and her fanbase. How can one feel alone with beauty such as this album to draw them together. It may have taken longer than I like, but McKennitt is back and the world is really a better place for it.

Rating: 4/5

Aaron Badgley
Copyright © 2018 The Spill Magazine



Loreena McKennitt's simple explanation for the 12-year break between new albums of original material is that "life happens" - touring to support her previous releases, caring for her late mother, researching another musical project. But McKennitt is back with the May 11 release of her 10th studio album Lost Souls, whose title track is premiering exclusively below.

"I had a lot of people ask us, 'Are you ever going to release anything original again?'" the Canadian songstress - who also released two collections of traditional material following 2006's An Ancient Muse - tells Billboard. "I figured the quickest way was to go to the cupboard and look at what had been written in the past. Four or five songs existed as little breadcrumbs from the late '80s to the present, which gave us a good start. So (Lost Souls) is a bit more of a collection, a corralling of pieces than 'Here's a creative vision and I want the right pieces to fit that.' It's more like a gathering, a collection of morsels."

The nine tracks on Lost Souls span more than three decades. McKennitt recalls performing "The Ballad of the Fox Hunter" and "Ages Past, Ages Hence" during the late '80s, while "Spanish Guitars and Night Plazas" was written during the early '90s. "La Belle Dams Sans Merci" was considered for An Ancient Muse, "Sun, Moon and Stars" has been around for a few years and "Manx Ayre" comes from a melody McKennitt composed during her days of busking on the streets of Toronto.

The "Lost Souls" track, meanwhile, was the album's most recent song, written last year and inspired by CBC lectures published in Ronald Wright's 2004 book A Short History of Progress. "(Wright) has studied civilizations as one might study the black boxes of aircrafts that have gone down," McKennitt says. "In his view it seems as a species we have a tendency to get ourselves into progress traps. When he wrote this lecture series it was coming as much from an environmental concern as anything else, but I put the connection to new technologies. I think they are very quickly and drastically changing everything we have known in such a fundamental and a quick way that I worry we may be in a progress trap here, too.

"Those were the ruminations that underpinned that song. I didn't want to get into it too literally, like many artists, so I wrote in a cryptic or metaphorical way so people could relate to it even if they didn’t understand where I was coming from."

McKennitt will support Lost Souls' release with in-store appearances May 16-18 in Germany and the Netherlands. She plans to begin touring in earnest during October, with a two-year global campaign the will kick off during October in South America. Meanwhile, McKennitt already has her sights on her next album, a set that will examine the connection between Celtic and Northern Indian cultures that she began working on some years ago.

"It continues to morph each passing day, almost too dangerous to time," McKennitt says. "I took a wonderful trip (to India) to start working on this and got plenty of inspiration, and I would love to feel I can go and do another. It's very interesting but very challenging because of the way the music business has changed so much in the last 10 years or so, when we released Ancient Muse. The creative side is the least of my worries; It's more, 'Is there going to be a proper return for the time and money invested in this. Will people actually BUY something when it's put out?' So there's much to study and learn and evaluate."

Gary Graff - 5/10/2018
© 2018 Billboard



Loreena McKennitt’s first release of original material since 2006, Lost Souls is a rich and culturally eclectic recording, which one has come to expect from this unique artist. It is a rich tapestry of contemporary thoughts woven with threads from the Celts to the Bedouins, stitched with the sounds of a diverse collection of musical voices, including nyckelharpa, oud, kanoun, a military band and flamenco guitar. An exotic musical journey like no other. The album is available worldwide on May 11th.

Amazon.com



Loreena McKennitts neues Album „Lost Souls“ ist seit ihrem 2006 Album „An Ancient Muse“, das erste neue Studioalbum. Produziert hat die mehrfach ausgezeichnete kanadische Sängerin und Komponistin ihr Album selbst. „Lost Souls“ ist ein eklektischer musikalischer Bilderteppich bestehend aus Liedern, die weitreichenden beeinflusst wurden- keltisch, wie aber auch orientalisch. Das neun neue Songs beinhaltende Album wurde in der Zeit von Mai bis Oktober 2017 in Hamilton, Kanada in den Catherine North Studios und im Studio von Peter Gabriel, den Real World Studios in der Nähe von Bath, England, aufgenommen.

Amazon.de
 

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