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| An Ancient Muse | 
 enlarge | Artist: Loreena Mckennitt
Label: Verve
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $7.59
You Save: $11.39 (60%)
New (45) Used (15) from $7.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  234 reviews
Sales Rank: 360
Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 4.8 x 0.4
MPN: 000792002
UPC: 774213121097
EAN: 0774213121097
ASIN: B000J3EEBY
Release Date: November 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Incantation | | • | The Gates Of Istanbul | | • | Caravanserai | | • | The English Ladye And The Knight | | • | Kecharitomene | | • | Penelope's Song | | • | Sacred Shabbat | | • | Beneath A Phrygian Sky | | • | Never-Ending Road (Amhran Duit) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
Album Description
An Ancient Muse is "eclectic celtic" - singer/composer Loreena McKennitt's highly-anticipated first new studio recording in nine years. Taking up where her previous work left off, McKennitt fuses the melodic sensibility of Celtic Balladry with musical traditions from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and beyond. Once heard, never forgotten, Loreena MacKennitt leads the listener on a timeless journey from the Scottish borders to the caravanserais of the Silk Road to the wine-dark seas of Homer's Odyssey. McKennitt's worldwide multi-platinum sales culminated in her most recent album, 1997's The Book of Secrets, which reached #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 229 more reviews...
 The Musical Vistas of Loreena McKennitt November 23, 2006
146 out of 159 found this review helpful
AN ANCIENT MUSE. Just the title seems to suggest songs celebrating the past. Fans have waited a decade for this album, myself included. Many reviewers will tell you it falls short of expectations or explores no new territory.....in some ways I find I have to agree...
The album opens with the sun illuminating ancient landscapes in "Invocation" an instrumental chant both haunting and beautiful. We walk through "The Gates of Istanbul" starting our journey thru the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and the splendor of modern Turkey. The song is steady and rhythmic and Loreena's voice has the same banshee/angel quality it always had...no disappointment here.
The night finds weary journeymen who have camped for the night at a "Caravanserai"...an inn for the caravans of Asia. She weaves a story of the many adventures and scenery she has seen before stopping to rest...on a journey home. Easily her best song....great live performance can be seen at her website.
Next a tale of Scotland's woe...words by Sir Walter Scott set to an arrangement of music by Loreena...as she sings of the tragic love between "The English Ladye and the Knight". This kind of poetic adaption has been done before by McKennitt...."Snow", "Dark Night of the Soul" and "The Highwayman" to name a few examples. Her voice is strong and emotionally charged.....the most beautiful song on the album.
From here on out....the rest of the album delivers some fine songs. However, they are not as striking as the first four. Disappointed? I'm not...these songs will grow on me...I didn't wait 10 years just to tear apart her new album!! So for now, I can say it is worth buying.
If you like stories of history, tragic love affairs, and poetry...listen to Loreena McKennitt's AN ANCIENT MUSE.
 Comfortable, Familiar, Still Sublime November 23, 2006
85 out of 91 found this review helpful
After a decade, it's nice to have a new Loreena McKennitt CD!
... even if it IS perhaps her least innovative work to date. Sorry to say it, but there's much familiar ground covered here. In particular, McKennitt seems to be revisiting musical realms already visited on MASK AND THE MIRROR (M&tM). I don't simply mean in the style or choice of instruments; there are melodies and arrangements here that strongly echo tracks from that album (and other albums of hers).
Even so, the CD is a joy to listen to. I love the thematic thesis for this album--McKennitt as the wandering minstrel, collecting old stories as she strolls through the Mediterranean--and ultimately I like this album better than M&tM. McKennitt is one of those artists whom, even when she produces something imperfect, is still producing something much more beautiful and worthwhile than the majority of artists out there.
Now, hopefully it won't be a decade (or even half a decade) before her next one!
Another Kingdom of Heavens January 20, 2007
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
A beautiful musical blend between East and West.
This could be the shortest description someone could give about this great CD.
I have bought "An Ancient Muse" few days ago as I was told about its musical sound mixture and was not sure what to expect.
Since I have put this CD in my CD player I am having a hard time playing anything else.
Living in Lebanon, The sound of this album reflects very much the oriental musical atmosphere I live in, an oriental blend well mixed with the European; and since this place was occupied once by the Arabs and Crusaders, From Turkey, passing by Lebanon, Jordan and reaching Jerusalem, the album is a perfect feel of this area in every sound aspect.
"An Ancient Muse" is a very relaxing CD. If you like this musical atmosphere, I highly recommend the Soundtrack "Kingdom of Heavens" which delivers the same musical atmosphere of similar historical background.
 Not up to her usual greatness November 26, 2006
26 out of 31 found this review helpful
Let me preface this review with the fact that I am a big Loreena McKennitt fan, owning almost every CD she has ever released. Because of the powerful beauty of her other albums, I was excited to learn that she had a new one coming out and rushed to pre-order it.
Unfortunately, this album just doesn't meet the high standard of her other works. Though it's a perfectly lovely recording, it lacks the power of previous releases. The main reasons it doesn't have quite the punch to which we are accustomed are the following:
1. There's a lot less of McKennitt's singing on this one than usual. While the instrumentation is quite fine, I am much more interested in her voice than in hearing track after track of wordless music.
2. Her other albums have varying tempos, with some slower and some faster songs throughout; this one features slow songs exclusively, all with similar tempo.
3. The style is very similar on each song, leaving me feeling like I heard the same song already a couple of times with different words by the end of the album.
It really is a pleasant recording, but easy to ignore where the others have my grabbed attention and held it. I really wish I could give this as great a rating as I was expecting, but I can't. I will say that my infant son fell right asleep while listening, so grab it up if you need a good lullaby CD!
Something's kind of missing.... November 22, 2006
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
I don't like to be that guy who gives a less-than-stellar review to a recording from an artist who hasn't released something in a while. Usually those sort of people are just the ones who aren't going to be satisfied no matter how great the new release.
However I do feel this recording is a little on the weaker end of things. Even the packaging is sparse - it lacks that beautiful illuminated feel of her previous releases, with their myriad of artworks and deep, thought provoking liner notes. With this disc all we get is a simple cover that looks no better than a greeting card, and a small short booklet with lyrics and a few thoughts. It's so very utilitarian. I don't feel like I'm being taken away into a misty, romanticized ancient world. I feel very much here and now. Which is not what I want or expect from a Loreena McKennitt record. Compared to the packaging and presentation of The Visit or The Mask and Mirror, An Ancient Muse feels like an EP release.
The music is good. Not great. Just good. It's very standard Loreena, albeit with a few twists such as the use of a more electric guitars and rock drums. But in the end that only serves to give it a somewhat pop feel. It kills the misty, dreamy world of atmosphere that used to seperate Loreena's music from other artists. Now she just ends up sounding a bit too polished and mainstream. She's almost heading in a somewhat (dare I say it) "easy listening" direction.
I never support the idea of an artist having to stay with a certain formula. I deeply appreciation mutation and innovation. But I don't sense either on this record. It's just the same old stuff with a few new twists here and there. And it doesn't measure up. Maybe, hopefully, she won't make us wait more than a year or two for her next recording...and that one will present a more compelling example of her great talents.
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