New Age, Neo-Celtic, World Beat Music


Category: Music

There is really some excellent music in these categories of music, IMO. I lump it all into New Age, but it's much more than that. Are ther others that enjoy this hard to classify music? I especially like Loreena McKennitt's Neo-Celtic CDs. Her "Book of Secrets", and "Mask Behind the Mirror" are favorites, but she has no bad CDs. I also like "The Visit". Another great group is Enigma. All four of their CDs are excellent, and are very well recorded. One magazine reviewer said she didn't know whether their music was just "Schlock" or exciting/meaningful-- but no doubt, I like and recommend it all. Another favorite that I've never seen mentioned is "Walela", a CD by Rita Coolidge et al.-- soft drumming, a neo-native american sound, and sort of ethereal in character, also an excellent recording. I also put Enya and Clannad in this group. Mai're (pronounced Moira) Brennan is a lead singer for Clannad and is sister of Enya. Mai're Brennan also has several excellent CDs out under her own name-- Celtic and Neo-Celtic music; beautiful voice. I also have a 3 CD set called "Celtic Legacy" that is largely Neo-Celtic. Then there's "Deep Forest" etc. Are there any other Audiogon members who like and can recommend some CDs with this (these) kind of music. Thanks. Craig.
garfish
two well recorded and performed cd's i believe are in this genre are "mouth music" on rykodisc and "white arrow" by hege rimstadt (northside). the latter ain't exactly celtic. rather, it's nordic. BTW, i found a pair of nothside samplers at my favorite indie record store (twist and shout) for $3.00 each. buy 'em if you can find 'em. some wierd and interesting stuff. good hunting -kelly
good post garfish!(must be cause you have 3a sigs). i'll completely agree w/ you on the above choices. all really well recorded. i'll add a few- ali farka toure & ry cooder "talking timbuktu", nusrat fateh ali khan w/ michael brooke " night song" &" mustt mustt". another is " the trilok gurtu collection". dadawa's stuff is interesting. also the group solas(celtic). also just about anything on waterlily records (waterlilyrecords.com). lets hear more!
Try: Anuna "Invocation" (Atlantic) and anything by the Scottish group "Ossian" (Iona).
Don't forget the "wee dram"!
Ditto, what a great post it seems some of this should be in the guilty pleasures thread started by Cornfedboy. I have ALL of the CD's you listed and listen to them a lot, but I was afraid to mention them because most other audiogon folks strongly dislike this genre' I guess it is there loss and our gain. Happy Listening! Tim.
Mary McLaughlin's Celtic Voices is wonderful in musical creativity and sound quality. My favorite world beat compilation is the two cd set Narada World: A Global Vision. I gave it to many of my friends for xmas and every single one loved it. Excellent recording quality. Guaranteed to make your feel good or your karma back! Also, The Irish group Altan features the magnificent voice of Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. Some of their music is traditional Irish, but they do venture into neo-celtic. it's worth a listening.
I second the choice of Mouth Music.(Mouth music is Afro-Celtic rythms which traditionally had giberish for vocals, instead of lyrics) I have three of their cds. The first two are far better than the third, which is too comercial. I saw them at the Bottom Line, in NYC. Very interesting.
Hey Craig, do you like any "harder" Celtic influenced music ??? I do agree that Loreena Mc has some great stuff. Not real familiar with most of the other stuff mentioned though. Sean
I'm a avid listener of most of what's listed above. Wanted to add a few more for your review, listed in order of being a favorite, but all are great to my ear. I have most of the albums issued by each group below but have listed just my favorite of their cds.
Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth
Lisa Gerrard - Duality
Deuter - Sun Spirit
Trance Planet - Volumn 2
Winds of Warning
Kitaro - Dream
Bel Canto - Shimmering Warm & Bright
Libera
Himekami - Moonwater
Mythos - Mythos
Delerium - Poem
Hisham - Somewhere in a Dream
Vollenweider - Caverna Magica
October Project - October Project
Do not like Oct. Proj. second album - Falling Further In.
Vas - In The Garden of Souls
Angelite - Mann
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

Hope some of these put a smile on your face.
Delerium: Semantic Spaces, Karma, Poem

Dead Can Dance: Passage In Time, any album preceding this.

I also have many Loreena McKinnet, Enigma, and Enya Cds. The
good thing is besides good music these are almost always excellent recording quality.
One of my recent favorites in the so called new age category would be Susumu Yokota "Sakura" it's just great. It might be hard to find though. If you can't locate it I'll make you a copy. A couple of others not listed are Steve Roach and Robert Rich both of who are on the Hearts of Space label.
Sean; I don't know what you mean by "harder" Celtic influenced music. As a generality, I don't care for the Jigs and Reels in traditional Celtic folk music, but really like the ballads. Craig
I meant "harder" as in HARD rock or "metal" !!! I won't waste bandwidth unless you or someone else is interested. Sean
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Sean; hard rock or metal generally not "my thing". I do like "Dead Can Dance". Where does that fit? I'd like to thank everyone above who made recommendations, and especially Tao who had quite a list. I copied the thread. Thanks. Craig.
Craig, i'm not really familiar with DCD. I always thought that they were some kind of "gothic" type band. I've got some more discs coming in from the band that i was going to mention and they are supposed to have some acoustic based stuff, so let me check them out and see what they are like. If i think that it would ring your bell, i'll let you know. Sean
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