by Dave Franklin

Created on: January 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Like most of Loreena McKennitt's work, this album takes the form of a musical journey, a journey across not only physical landscapes, but also through time. Often seen as a competitor to Enya's place as queen of this almost cross-genre new age chilled music, the two ladies do have a lot in common both musically and personally. However to merely label her work as an Enya copyist is doing a major disservice as for as much as they have in common with each other, there is as much that separates them. Whilst Enya seems content to reference fantasy realms and dreamscapes, McKennitt's interest seems to lie in real places, historical settings and foreign cultures, enabling her to build the same sort of inspirational musical structures but ones grounded in reality. In musical terms also there is a difference, Enya's gradual move from the early pop inspired songs into more classical realms has opened many doors for her, McKennitt, on the other hand has always drawn on a wide range of world music to create her wonderful soundscapes. Here there is a very Spanish undercurrent to her work, but the threads that connect with this central idea lead in all sorts of direction. It's a journey that takes you from 15th century Spain with its mix of religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity and outwards into a wider web of pathways. From the more familiar turf of the west coast of Ireland, through the troubadours of France, crossing over the Pyrenees and then to the west through Galicia, down through Andalusia and past Gibraltar to Morocco. It dwells on specific events and peoples, The Crusades, the pilgrimage to Santiago, Cathars, the Knights Templar, the Sufis from Egypt, One Thousand and One Nights in Arabia, the Celtic sacred imagery of trees, the Gnostic Gospels and even poses some of the biggest of questions such as who is God? and what is religion, what is spirituality? What was revealed and what was concealed...and what was the mask and what the mirror?

Inspired by an evening wandering around the old Moorish quarter of Granada with Idries Shahs book "the Sufis" as a guide, "The Mystics Dream" is that mix of eastern rhythms and western chant that encapsulates the history of southern Spain. Male Gregorian chant forms a body on which the song builds whilst hand drums create the songs pace and finally Loreena's well-enunciated and crystal clear voice completes the image. As the song grows Arabic pipes weave in and out and hand bells chime in the distance and images of flickering

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