A reviewerby Anonymous

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February 08, 2008: A remarkable thing I have always admired in her career is the great step from being a great celtic singer (which arrives to its apex in The Visit) towards a "globalized" approach to art, her constant attempt to wider her musical horizons. This new trend began with The mask and the mirror (which I don`t know in its entirety) and The book of secrets. An ancient muse belongs to the same trend. There is nothing really new here. In fact, albeit there is no great wrong track here, the musical variety is far more limited, compared with Book of secrets. The almost cosmic and "New agey" canvas are fully captured in the introduction to Book of secrets, or in Dante's Prayer, from that album. An exciting Mummers dance gives a very wellcome contrast. The "literature" song that she uses is The highwayman, an exciting (if a bit long) piece. Also included are numbers which in our imagination have a tendency to describe Far East or a mythical Renaissance Venice. You see? A wide sort of music with celtic background and at the same time Eastern music background, with varying moods and tempi. And here??? Most of them are slow and meditative. many times it resembles to me Enya, than "The Visit". I have read this maybe related to the death of her fiance and his friends, as if it had encapsulled her in a "frozen" way of making music. The product is quite professional but very "samey" along the album. Some tracks are simply boring (I like renaissance music but the piece here with Scott`s lyrics with viola da gamba ensemble has the most boring arrangement I have listened in her music). Conclusion: her musical evolution stopped in Book of secrets. Buy that and The visit as a good contrast. Or the Alhambra concert, they say it is great.