Signature
Available Digitally
"Theme from Harry's Game," sung with Moya Brennan's original band, Clannad, set the stage for the Celtic renaissance of the 1980s. But Brennan has always been more than gothic choirs, and Signature highlights her songwriting as much as her heavenly voice. This is her first album in a while that breathes... Brennan and co-producer/guitarist Fionán de Barra strip away a few of the layers, giving her songs a sense of space, depth, and contour. She sings of redemption, salvation in the face of lost hope, and love over all through a meticulous weave of Celtic harps, Irish flutes, and fiddles, bodhráns, and uillean pipes. There's just enough production sheen and rhythm loops to take it out of folk terrain, but enough passion and edge to keep it from sliding into easy-listening treacle, although sentimental love songs like "Always" sure make an effort. Most of the songs tend toward chant-like ballads, but she lifts the roof off with the album-opening "Purple Haze." It isn't the Hendrix song, although the skeletal lyrics might obliquely refer to Brennan's born-again rejection of her wild youth. It's a powerful merging of tribal Celtic percussion and her impassioned vocals splayed against an avenging choir chanting like a Druid ritual in an Irish cove. Signature offers more evidence that Moya Brennan is the voice of contemporary Irish music, hopefully more than the smarmy cotton candy of Celtic Woman'. - John Diliberto / Echoes
Track List:
- Purple Haze [04:00]
- No One Talks [04:20]
- Merry-go-round [04:39]
- Always [04:03]
- Tapestry [03:40]
- Black Night [03:16]
- Hear My Prayer [03:41]
- Never Stray Far Away [04:17]
- Many Faces [03:30]
- Hidden Stories [04:18]
- Gone Are The Days [04:02]
- Pill A Run O [03:47]
Credits:
ALBUM CREDITS
Released October 2006
Produced by Moya Brennan
Co-produced by Fionán De Barra
Engineered by Fionán De Barra
Mixed by Fionán De Barra
Mastered by Noel Summerville at Transfermation, London
Recorded at Mo Studios, Dublin
Executive Producer Tim Jarvis
Album Coordinator Leon Brennan
Art Design and Concept Mark Debnam, Mella Travers
Photography Mella Travers
Costumes Ciaran Sweeney www.ciaransweeney.com
Moya Brennan: Vocals, Harp, Keyboards
and band...
Paul Byrne: Drums, Bodhran, Timpani, Percussion
Fionán De Barra: Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
Cormac De Barra: Harp, Vocals
Eamonn Galldubh: Uilleann Pipes, Whistles, Flute
Yoshinobi Izumi: Electric Bass
Sam Jackson: Piano, Keyboards
Sinead Madden: Fiddle, Vocals
along with...
Maire Breatnach: Viola, Fiddle
Grainne Hope: 'Cello
Tim Jarvis: Keyboards
Robbie Harris: Percussion
Steve Hogan: Drum programmes
Paul Byrne: Additional drum programmes
Fionán De Barra: String arrangements
(P) 2006 Moya Brennan
(C) 2006 Moya Brennan