Celtic woman orinoco flow tv#

Yet with stentorian rhythm and chanted Latin lyrics about Marilyn Monroe, Cursum Perficio makes the case that Enya ought to be regarded as the equal to these hip goth peers. This track was released the same year as the 4AD label put out Cocteau Twins’ Blue Bell Knoll and Dead Can Dance’s The Serpent’s Egg to far greater critical acclaim, if not commercial success. I Could Never Say Goodbye, her voice wobbling with regret, is a particularly fine example. While Enya’s private life remains a closely guarded secret, she has always had a keen ear for heartbreak amid the high-concept themes sung in an invented language, paeans to nature and Celtic futurism. The surging synthesiser pulse is as ominous as the war horns of an ancient army approaching across a blasted moor. This haunting track comes immediately after Anywhere Is, the infernally upbeat single from the album The Memory of Trees it sounds all the better for the contrast. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo 5. Oíche Chiúin (Chorale) (2008)Įnya’s Christmas and winter albums are a mixed bag, but this Gaelic language Silent Night is a thing of beauty – and, in the multiple layering of Enya’s vocals to make her into “a choir of one”, is Nicky Ryan’s ultimate realisation of what the Enya project was intended to be.Īt the time of her biggest hit, Orinco Flow. The gates, according to Enya, guard the planet where the wandering intergalactic Celtic people will eventually find sanctuary, and this might be their quietly triumphant anthem. This elegiac track of quasi-ceremonial rhythms and misty synths is another written in Roma Ryan’s Loxian language.

Yet it was the Irish tradition that shaped her life and career, and this delicate version of an old hymn, first reworked by Pete Seeger in the 60s, suggests that an Enya folk covers album could be an intriguing prospect. Given that Enya is an artist whose sound is built from digital processing and production, some would no doubt blow their tops were she described as a folk artist. I’ve even heard it mixed into Whitehouse’s Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel in a techno DJ set. The title track from Enya’s breakthrough LP, this delicate piano instrumental brings to mind Slowdive’s under-regarded 1995 album Pygmalion, highlighting how Enya can sit comfortably alongside supposedly more credible artists. Smaoitím … (D’Aodh Agus Do Mháire Uí Dhúgain) (1988)Įnya’s exploration of nature is never sentimental, and this affectingly sparse B-side to the jaunty Orinoco Flow is moving in its minimalism, her perfect voice singing of loss in the legend of a tidal wave sweeping ashore in her grandparents’ home of Maragallen, Ireland, and drowning the villagers as they prayed in church. It’s a floaty track interrupted by a deeper bass boom – another pointer to Nicky Ryan’s experimental tendencies. Sumiregusa, inspired by a Japanese haiku, is an ode to the wild violet. The natural world is a constant source of inspiration in Enya’s music. If it’s good enough for a “wrecker of civilisation”, it should be good enough for you.

Celtic woman orinoco flow tv#

Nicki Minaj spoke about her love of Enya on Stephen Colbert’s TV chatshow, saying: “It’s so peaceful, and it helps me with harmonies and sounds … I tap into my Enya.” Colbert made a trite comment about the singer being “like an elf”, and Minaj’s withering glance showed that her appreciation for Enya’s harmonisation, beautifully showcased in Deireadh an Tuath, marks her as a true believer.Įnya’s non-ironic influence on contemporary experimental electronic musicians such as Holly Herndon and Gazelle Twin is well-known, but the fan that surprises many is Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle, who recently selected Only Time as a favourite track.

Roma Ryan wrote the lyrics for Aníron in JRR Tolkien’s elvish dialect Sindarin, which in turn inspired her to develop Loxian, a fully realised language for Enya’s Celtic space travellers. Aníron (2001)Įnya’s singular and timeless evocation of vast landscapes and Celtic-inspired otherworldliness made her the obvious candidate to contribute to the soundtracks of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. At one point it featured 100 layered vocals, all eventually removed. A fascinating document of an artist finding her feet, this simple piano sketch would later reappear as a transportive instrumental on Watermark. Miss Clare Remembers (1984)Įnya’s first solo release, as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, was on a cassette compilation put out by the experimental label Touch Travel. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy 17.