AN ANCIENT MUSE
by Loreena McKennitt (0602527304182)

Tell me, O Muse, of those who travelled far and wide

Aptly, it is an echo of Homer's timeless Odyssey that introduces Loreena McKennitt's seventh studio recording, the latest volume of a project she describes as “musical travel writing. This time, the journey takes her in search of the Celts easternmost paths, from the plains of Mongolia to the kingdom of King Midas and the Byzantine Empire. Along the way, she muses on the concepts of home, of travel in all its incarnations, of the cultural intermingling that underpins human history and our universal legacies of conflict and hope.

Recorded at Real World Studios and featuring a host of acclaimed musicians, the album proffers a treasure trove of instruments, from harp, hurdy-gurdy and accordion to oud, lyra, kanoun and nyckelharpa (the Scandinavian keyed fiddle). Highlights include the seductive rhythms and Silk Road influences of first single Caravanserai; Penelope's Song, a paean to steadfast love; and Loreena's musical setting of Sir Walter Scott's poem of star-crossed romance, The English Ladye And The Knight. Together, the nine songs that comprise An Ancient Muse conjure up a wide world's worth of human stories that are as unique as they are unforgettable.

Tracks:
1 Incantation
2 The Gates Of Istanbul
3 Caravanserai
4 The English Ladye And The Knigh
t 5 Kecharitomene
6 Penelope's Song
7 Sacred Shabbat
8 Beneath A Phrygian Sky
9 Never-Ending Road (Amhr?n Duit)

On her seventh full-length studio recording, McKennitt follows her Muse across time and tide, from Homer?s Greece to Ottoman Istanbul to England in the age of the Crusades. As with earlier albums, particularly the multi-platinum The Book Of Secrets, she takes her inspiration from the history and migrations of the Celtic people, fusing the melodic sensibility of Scots and Irish balladry with musical traditions from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and even Scandinavia.

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.

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.?

USD $26.29

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