Loreena McKennitt - Parallel Dreams (CD)

Review of Parallel Dreams

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jan 10, 2001

This is Loreena McKennitt's third album. Previous releases (Elemental, To Drive the Cold Winter Away) are heavily comprised of Traditional material as well as adaptations of poetry by W.B. Yeats and William Blake.

In this album, Loreena debuts original material in the tracks Samain Night, Huron 'Beltane' Fire Dance, Dicken's Dublin (The Palace), Breaking the Silence, and Ancient Pines.

Loreena's harpistry and keyboards, and her use of seperate tracks to harmonize with herself on Samain Night are wonderful and haunting, and presage things to come without in any way abandoning the body of traditional material she has already recorded. Huron 'Beltane' Fire Dance has no lyrics, and the liner states that is a recollection of the dreams of the American Indians and of the Celts. Again, much of this piece is quite traditionally Celtic in its sound and arrangement, with Loreeena's interpretation and arrangment adding much. Dicken's Dublin (The Palace) is quite moving, and contains a reading taken from Dickens. The music and lyrics are original, and to some extent, I wish Loreena would re-record/re-release this without the added device of the reading, as the song is wonderful particularly when the context is understood, and does not require the reading to be appreciated. This is, however, a continuation of Loreena's 'reading list' which thus far includes Yeats and Blake, as well as the device of including readings in her works. Breaking the Silence is a tribute to Amnesty International. Ancient Pines is instrumental, and according to the liner notes, is 'the earth's yearning for release from the oppression of the human hand', a sympathy that can be perhaps detected in later works such as 'Bonny Portmore' and other works.

The poem 'Moon Cradle' in the track by the same name was written by Padraic Colum 1881–1972, Irish-American author, b. Longford, Ireland. He was active in the Irish literary renaissance and helped to found the Abbey Theatre. His verse includes Wild Earth (1907), The Story of Lowry Maen (1937), and Collected Poems (1953). He also wrote children’s stories based on Irish folklore. Loreena McKennitt set this work to music, and the result is beautiful. The addition of this track to Loreena's list of poetry set to music continues this tradition in her work, and is a most valuable and touching addition to that work.

Standing Stones adds to Loreena's considerable body of traditional material by setting traditional lyrics to original music; the Uillean Pipes featured in this piece are really very haunting. Annachie Gordon is also traditional in both lyrics and music and Loreena's arrangement is a valuable addition to her continuing efforts to document a valuable body of Celtic music.

This is a really great album, both in its originality as well as in its reverence for the traditional. Highly reccomended.