An Ancient Muse [B&N Exclusive Version] Loreena McKennitt

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Editorial Reviews

After nearly a decade's span, Loreena McKennitt returns to the recording studio to pick up the journey she last explored on 1997's The Book of Secrets. That interval may seem like an eternity by pop-culture standards, but it's no more than a moment in the timeless musical world McKennitt conjures on An Ancient Muse. Like a travel guide through an imaginary, romanticized past, the Canadian singer-songwriter tours musical styles from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and other realms, while never quite losing sight of her Celtic home base. Beginning with an improvisational, wordless "Incantation," McKennitt ventures to "The Gates of Istanbul," treks "Beneath a Phrygian Sky," and stops over at a "Caravanserai" along a "Never-Ending Road," with oud, hurdy-gurdy, Swedish keyed fiddle, and other instrumental exotica as tuneful travel companions. On more familiar ground, McKennitt's lyrical vocals shine on the Celtic ballad "The English Ladye and the Knight" (with text by Sir Walter Scott), as well as on the mournful "Penelope's Song" (inspired by Homer's Odyssey), while "Raglan Road" -- a bonus track available only on this Barnes & Noble exclusive edition -- adds to the enchantment of the Celtic Queen's latest mystical musical voyage. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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