Adiemus - Adiemus Iv-The Eternal Knot

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Music reviews of Adiemus Iv-The Eternal Knot

Music Review: Enya's "The Celts" Did Much Better
Rating: 2 Stars

Admittedly, I expected too much, and I was mildly disappointed. For starters, I think Karl should revamp his style of strong strings and percussion backing up choral vocals, because it's starting to lack punch. Unlike one of his earliest releases (or was it his first?) - "Adiemus", which had a very dreamy, hypnotic and lulling feel to it - the music on "The Eternal Knot" has the listener hardly stirring emotionally, aside from catchy or humorous tunes. After the majestic but not-quite-there opening track "Cu Chullain", those pleasant and playful melodies to look out for are "Palace of the Crystal Bridge", "King of the Sacred Grove", "Saint Declan's Drone" (you'll love this one over and over again...), "Connla's Well" (the trivial title gives way to a tantalizing composition), "Ceridwen's Curse" and "Isle of the Mystic Lake". These are tracks that should bring Adiemus to its next level in musical variety, after its try at African music.

But, alas, even the title track doesn't jolt you! Tracks like "The Dagda" and "The Wooing of Etain" could lull you to sleep with their monotonous lengths, and others like "Salm O `Dewi Sant'" prove ineffective in putting Irish traditional instruments to good use.

Overall, this soundtrack emphasizes the power of even a simple, basic tune. Enya's "The Celts" was very skeletal in its music, but the tunes were so beautiful they made you sit up and marvel at their wonderfully creative simplicity. Yet with all the instruments Karl Jenkins could have made better use of, he just had to spin out another record that shames the rest of the Adiemus series.

Description of Adiemus Iv-The Eternal Knot

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The Eternal Knot is drawn from Jenkins's soundtrack to a BBC documentary called The Celts. You might recall that Enya also evolved her sound in the late 1980s doing a soundtrack for another documentary called The Celts. Taking his titles from the Celtic legends that populate the documentary, Jenkins orchestrates cinematic landscapes full of swelling crescendos and dynamic cadences. Less oppressive than the heavily orchestrated Adiemus II, The Eternal Knot still wears thin. He casts Miriam Stockley's voice into a boys-choir register, turning her staccato phonemes into incessant prattle. But when she's in her warmer middle range, her layered voice is enveloping. Despite the theme of the album, Celtic music is only used as an occasional touchstone, with uilleann piper Davy Spillane, a few bodhran-style percussion grooves, and harpist Catrin Finch providing some relief from Jenkins's string-laden classical pretensions. --John Diliberto

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