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An Ancient Muse Loreena McKennitt Verve/Quinlan Road It has been since 1997 that we were graced by a new studio album from Loreena McKennitt. But An Ancient Muse is worth the wait. An Ancient Muse is a lush fusion of Celtic music, predominately Scottish and Irish balladry with the musical traditions of ancient Greece, Spain, Byzantium, the Silk Road, and Ottoman-era Turkey. Close your eyes and listen to the instrumental “The Gates of Istanbul” and you will feel like you are a 15th-century spiritual pilgrim walking along a dusty road, among a caravan of camels as you approach the ancient city walls. A thousand smells linger in the air, and a cacophony of sounds fills your senses. This is the power of Loreena’s music—it reaches across the centuries to remind us that humanity can indeed create something beautiful and wondrous. McKennitt’s music has always painted vivid landscapes in one’s mind. However, with this album, her music also serves as a catharsis for the soul. A majority of the songs on An Ancient Muse are neo-traditional melodies about love and loss and are as heartrending as they are beautiful. Songs such as “The English Ladye and The Knight” (a song based upon a poem by Sir Walter Scott), “Penelope’s Song,” and “Beneath A Phrygian Sky” envelop the listener with ghostly memories, echoes of our own mortality and the ever-moving wheel of time. Each song is a unique view emotionally, but the last song “Never-ending Road (Amhran Duit)” is an uplifting tune that explores the bard’s love for poetry and the spoken word. From the devotionals of the Sufis and the poetry of Rumi—to Anatolian poet Yunus Emre and Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross—this piece is a bewitching amalgam of musical flavors. An Ancient Muse weaves a tapestry of joy, desire, and sorrow throughout the ages. It is ambitious and the musicianship is near perfection. — Michael Lohr

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