The Loreena McKennit Music Feista!

[ladymirth]

This is a post of many parts and purposes, dedicated to many people. 

Firstly, it is for  clarksmuse  for bequeathing me the glory that is Enya.

Secondly, it is a present for  cyad  who has been waiting for this very patiently. 

Thirdly, it is a "welcome" gift for the new additions to my friends-list, never_evil  , quidditchkiss  , roaringsprite  ,  schnuffichen  and a rather belated one for  beadlebardreads  and prelude_in_d  . 

Fourthly, it is a thank you present for just_ruth  , for making my week with her gift which I got in the mail the other day. 

Fifthly, it is something to soothe lostprincess87  's migraines, poor honey, because I've been told that Loreena is very soothing for that kind of thing. 

Sixthly, it is for all the people who included me in their "Ten People Who Make My Day Brighter" meme. I am very touched, and I will post a meme of my own soon, but it certainly won't be just ten people. =)

Right. On with the music. 

(Links lead to both megaupload and torrent downloads at mininova.org)
     

 

 

 

Loreena McKennit
                                               


ELEMENTAL

Loreena McKennitt’s debut recording and Quinlan Road’s inaugural release, Elemental, displays the artist’s first foray into the realm of Celtic music. Like all her subsequent recordings, this album was self-produced, and it was recorded one week in July, 1985 in a barn in Southern Ontario amongst a field of sunflowers.

 “Celtic history would become my creative springboard”, Loreena recalls of her growing fascination with the subject. “Musically, I came to learn of, and be inspired by, many groups and artists ranging from those who authentically recreate its traditional forms to those who, like Brittany’s Alan Stivell, seek to mould it into something new and innovative.” At the time of this recording, the composer’s involvement in film and theatre would play a substantial role in the eclecticism of the material presented here.

Elemental’s nine tracks showcase McKennitt’s talents as a singer and harpist with fresh and memorable arrangements of traditional favourites, and musical settings of poems by Yeats and Blake. Its featured guests include renowned actor and folk musician Cedric Smith and esteemed Shakespearean actor Douglas Campbell.

(My favourite is Stolen Child. It is a chilling poem by W.B Yeats about the entrancing and abduction of a human child by the Faerie, set perfectly to music.) 
 
Click here for the torrent file.

PARALELL DREAMS

“Beyond the transportation into fantasy, dreams have served as a vehicle through which we have integrated our conscious and subconscious, the real and the surreal, the powerful and the intangible”, says Loreena McKennitt of the themes examined via these eight evocative songs.

One of the most successful independent releases ever in McKennitt's native Canada, the self-produced 1989 album Parallel Dreams is also her first recording to feature the artist's own lyrical contributions. From the poignant traditional ballad “Annachie Gordon” to the fiery Native American/Celtic fusion of “Huron 'Beltane' Fire Dance” to the evocative tale of a child's yearning for home in “Dickens' Dublin (The Palace)”, Loreena's third recording shows a marked evolution beyond the realm of traditional Celtic music and heads down the road on an eclectic musical journey.

“If there is a recurrent thread that runs through these dreams”, their creator concludes, “it is one of yearning toward love, liberty and integration. Of all the variations of dreams we may have, these surely are our parallel dreams”.

(My favourites are Annachie Gordon and Standing Stones.)

Click here for the torrent file. 

THE VISIT

Broadening her focus toward a more eclectic range of Celtic-related subjects, and following her attendance at an international exhibition of Celtic artefacts in Venice, Loreena’s writing in her fourth album, The Visit, takes on the form of musical historical travel writing.

A multimillion-selling success around the world, this 1991 recording recasts Loreena’s early influences in an inventive and contemporary light. Its nine self-produced tracks range from a haunting version of “Greensleeves” sung “as I imagine Tom Waits might have done it” and a stirring instrumental “Tango To Evora” to the heartrending traditional balladry and proto-environmentalism of “Bonny Portmore” and, finally, one of Loreena’s best-loved creations, a gorgeously melodic setting of Tennyson’s epic Arthurian poem “The Lady Of Shalott”.

“The Celts knew, as we are re-learning now, the importance of a deep respect for all the life around them,” Loreena concludes. “This recording aspires to be nothing so much as a reflection into the weave of these things.”

(Even though Loreena has been accused of butchering "Greensleeves", I can't see it for myself, since hers is the only version I've ever heard. Otherwise, I love this whole album most especially Shakespeare's last poem "Cymbeline" and "The Old Ways" which has an electric guitar sequence in the middle that make you want to shoot through the roof. *dies*) 

Click here for the torrent file.

THE MASK AND THE MIRROR

“I have come to use the pan-Celtic history, which spans from 500 BC to the present, as a creative springboard”, says Loreena McKennitt. “The music I am creating is a result of travelling down that road and picking up all manner of themes and influences, which may or may not be overtly Celtic in nature. With The Mask And Mirror I began my journey in Galicia, the Celtic corner of Spain, and I moved on from there as I continued on my own historical and musical pilgrimage. I looked back and forth though the window of 15th century Spain, through the hues of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and was drawn into a fascinating world: history, religion, cross-cultural fertilization.”

Self-produced and boasting an exotic palette of instrumentation from cello and uillean pipes to dumbeg, tabla and oud, Loreena’s fifth album was released in 1994 and has since sold several million copies worldwide. Spanning Spanish, Celtic and Moroccan influences, it follows paths of inspiration from Ireland to Santiago de Compostella to the Middle East. Accompanying musical settings of poems by St. John Of The Cross and Shakespeare are eclectic, richly-textured originals including a seductively dramatic “The Mystic's Dream” and “Marrakesh Night Market”.

In its journeys, it examines, says Loreena, the questions that echo down the centuries: “Who was God? What is religion, what spirituality? What was revealed and what was concealed … and what was the mask and what the mirror?”

(Favourites are The Bonny Swans (although the imagery is quite gruesome) and Dark Night of the Soul, which is really romantic. *sigh*) 

Click here for the torrent file. 

THE BOOK OF SECRETS

"A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's words are a good introduction to the third album in a trilogy of musical travel documents that began with The Visit. Recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios in England, The Book Of Secrets was written and researched all over the world, and, following its release in 1997, would go on to sell several million copies around the globe.

The album features a cast of over two dozen musical collaborators, and the eight songs contained therein, including North American hit single “The Mummers’ Dance”, leads the listener on unexpected journeys. Follow the music from ancient Byzantium to a puppet-maker's theatre in Sicily, or from the rocky island of Skellig Michael once inhabited by Irish monks in the Dark Ages to Venice and the journeys of Marco Polo, or from the tragic narrative of  “ The Highwayman” to the thunder of hooves across the Caucasus and the echoes of Dante’ s words found, unexpectedly, in a train journey across Siberia

(This was Loreena's last album before the death of her fiance in a boating accident. The best album of the lot, IMO, and I love every single song so much it's not funny. But if I had to pick a favourite, it would be "The Highwayman". Single most evocative song I've ever heard, and the imagery is chilling. Read the full-length version of the poem by Alfred Noyes.

She has since made a comeback with 3 more albums, one of which was nominated for a Grammy.)

Click here for the torrent file.

All album descriptions have been taken from Loreena's official site, Quinlan Road. Lyics to all songs and other info may also be found there. 

Feel free to link to anybody you want! 

ETA: I seem to have mislabelled some of the songs in the zip files. "Arabian Nights" and "Ride On" in the Book of Secrets should be "Marco Polo" and "Night Ride Across the Caucasus" respectively. "All Hallows Eve" in The Visit is actually "All Souls Night" and "Dance" is "Between the Shadows". Track 8 of The Mask and the Mirror is "Cé Hé Mise Le Ulaingt? / The Two Trees". Thanks to 

cyad for pointing them out.  All track titles can be found at LM's official website. =)

 

 

 

 

Comments

[cyad.livejournal.com]

gotta agree to that: she's got an unimitable and instantly recognizable voice print.

And great voice and... I love her more than I dislike her. *lus she's got a kind heart.