"Invocation" is a stupendous musical achievement. I
say this as someone who, if you looked at my music collection, you would not
expect ever to hear this music, much less to buy it twice (on cassette in 1996
and on CD last year). So Ill try to put into words the several things that
hooked me: 1) The sweetest, most delicate soprano singing this side of heaven
("The Last Rose", sung by Sara Clancy and "Winter Fire and Snow" and "Siuil a
Riun", sung by Katie McMahon). 2) Strange, disturbing, yet thrilling harmonies
that seem to delve into deep layers of wonder and awe ("Sleepsong", "Quis Est
Deus", and especially "Goltrai"). 3) Humorous male vocal shenanigans ("Hin
Bara"). 4) Surges of dark, mysterious urgency and excitement ("Firi Na
Greine/The Rising of the Sun", and my two favorite tracks "Heia Viri" and "Song
of Oisin") 5) Harmonies that are so drop-dead gorgeous I have no words for them
("Innisfree").
If youre not familiar with Anuna, they were (as of
this 1996 CD) an Irish ensemble of 19 men and women (only 12 pictured in the
fold-out, most looking to be in their twenties), under the direction of Michael
McGlynn who has arranged original interpretations of various forms of Irish
vocal music of roughly the last thousand years, with minimal instrumentation. I
asked a Celt-o-phile friend where these adventurous vocal harmonies come from
and she explained that through the centuries the Irish always took harmonic
liberties that were discouraged by the more regimented compositional styles of
Britain and mainland Europe. Im not sure where Anuna recorded, but the CD has
that live-in-a-cathedral sound that is appropriate to the music. This was their
second CD. I made my way backward from this CD to their first self-titled album
"Anuna", which falls short of "Invocation" by only the slightest of margins, but
I have not yet made my way forward to their more recent efforts. I have promoted
this CD like a missionary, as Im doing now. Ive found to my astonishment some
people I expected to like it did not share my enthusiasm. But if youre one who
does, and this review helps you find it, then that is why Im writing it.
(Amazon review)