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Current
Band Members:
Official Web Links: Atlantic Records' Official Clannad Web Site Word Records' Official Máire Brennan Web Site Recommended Web Links:
Barry Jobson's Máire Brennan Web Pages
Internet
Mailing Lists:
Internet Audio Recommendations:
RTE Radio One - |
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Tuesday, October 5, 1999
GRAMMY AWARD WINNING CELTIC ARTIST MÁIRE BRENNAN TO RELEASE WHISPER TO THE WILD WATER OCT. 19 *** Follow up to her Word Records debut, Whisper to the Wild Water is layered in cultural tradition mixed with contemporary world music from Clannad frontwoman whose voice has been heard on close to fifteen million albums sold worldwide Hers is the voice of an angel and her passion to let it fly is as fiery as anything Irish you’ll ever encounter. Máire (Gaelic spelling, pronounced Moya) Brennan, frontwoman for the prolific, Grammy-winning Brennan family group, Clannad, will release her fourth solo project, Whisper To The Wild Water, on Oct. 19. From the land of saints and scholars comes the follow-up to her 1998 Word Records debut, Perfect Time, and this vibrant, new offering is rich in Celtic tradition while at the same time flowing with a contemporary sensibility and the depth of world music rhythms. And as the element of water – and the album title – suggest, Brennan’s voice flows naturally from chorus to verse, as rivers merge to oceans. An amazing instrument that gracefully cascades over songs in her first language, Gaelic, and in English, as well, and is banked (but not contained) by a convergence of well-tended electric guitars and Uileann pipes, drum loops and fiddles, and Brennan’s own harp and keyboards. With minor adjustments to the same lively band, which accompanied her on Perfect Time, now together forming a tribute of valour and hope to the history from which this music springs. Whether it’s "To The Water," "Peacemaker," with its Gaelic spoken word opening performed by her five-year-old son, Paul, "i lathair De (In God’s Presence)," a duet with her mother, Baba, or the title track, Whisper To The Wild Water is a visual soundscape. The album evokes Brennan’s hometown of Dore, County Donegal, where she, as the eldest of nine children, formed Clannad with two brothers and twin uncles. Imagine visiting her father Leo’s pub in this northwestern region, bordered by ocean and mountains. Walk through the hills with a crisp wind in your face and Brennan’s quiet, potent songs, which she sings from her heart to yours. "The sound and melodies on this album relate to images. Images that are inspired by my surroundings and that I’ve jotted down throughout the years. On this album, I wasn’t afraid to explore deeper territories. I just said, ‘ I’m known for putting a hum to anything and I’m going to do it,’" she explains in a delightful lilt. While Brennan is the primary songwriter, she also worked with her husband of eight-and-a-half years, photographer/songwriter Tim Jarvis. Along with longtime producer Denis Woods and Tim Martin who also mixed the recent Corrs album. "The way we work is that Tim puts ideas down and I play around with them. We work quite well together, actually. I always throw things at him to see what he thinks. I value his opinion tremendously and that helps a lot. I develop a lot of songs in the studio. I don’t do demos and then we do the songs again. I like experimenting and putting down at the same time." In addition to Whisper To The Wild Water and Perfect Time, Brennan released Misty-Eyed Adventures, the title track written for her son, in 1995, and her solo debut, Máire, in 1992, which featured her newborn daughter on the cover and an original lullaby within. "My brothers were the main writers in Clannad so with all the different influences and things I’d gone through, I wanted to put myself in a situation to see where I would come from in writing. What I discovered was that I love world music, I love all kinds of music so I contrasted Irish music and the Irish voice with a little bit of world rhythms. I’ve done that on this album, too. I like doing it," Brennan laughs. "When I went in to do this album," she continues, "I didn’t really know what it was going to sound like. I knew there was going to be harmonies in it and I knew I was going to venture into more rhythms and try to take a step beyond what I did on Perfect Time and not be afraid of using a kit and a snare and things like that. I’ve also used the fiddle, accordion, flutes and pipes a lot more than on previous albums because I’ve had the time to do it." This fearless experimentation translates to a free and eclectic range of sounds that swirl and blend with liquid continuity; symbolically incorporating nature’s four elements (and the foundation of ancient Celticism), her abundant culture, and a creatively modern approach. Open to the possibilities that Whisper To The Wild Water was to become, Brennan observes, "Sometimes you come up with great ideas when you accidentally discover something and if you don’t challenge yourself to these things, they never happen." Among her many other credits is the recent success of her #1 UK pop hit, "Saltwater," performed with Chicane, and her contribution to the Back to Titanic soundtrack, "Come Josephine, in My Flying Machine," a song her father first performed with his show band. She and U2 vocalist Bono formed an awesome alliance in 1986 for "In A Lifetime," while Clannad recordings (beyond their 1999 Landmarks Grammy win) have anchored films such as "Patriot Games" and "The Last of the Mohicans," and even a Volkswagen Passat commercial. "We took traditional songs when we started in 1970 and tried to create the emotion of the stories and make pictures using our voices and harmonies and our instrumentation. We always had that in mind," she explains. And that’s something that’s still very much with her, and something she gives to others as they listen to the whisper. As Brennan prepares for a U.S. tour behind Whisper To The Wild Water, she has returned to Dore to begin writing an autobiography.
Whisper to the Wild Water When M‡ire Brennan sings, enchantment whispers, emotion exults, and a peace that passes understanding exudes from the music she makes. Whisper to the Wild Water, her new album, is the soulful essence of an Irish visionary - music of healing, faith and hope. It follows the singer/songwriterŐs 1998 Word debut, Perfect Time, an album that has sold a quarter of a million units globally and won such major awards as the 1998 Contemporary Album of the Year at the UK’s Christian Bookseller Convention. That triumph, Brennan says, only encouraged her to go deeper into herself. "I loved Perfect Time. And there were moments in making this new record that I wondered whether I’d reach the level I’d accomplished before. But I wanted to reach farther. I wanted to take another step forward." With the upcoming October 19 release of Whisper To The Wild Water, M‡ire (pronounced Moya) Brennan soars ahead. An inspiring mixture of poetic lyrics sung in English and Brennan’s native Gaelic, of electric guitar and Uileann pipes, of fiddles and contemporary percussion and keyboard, the album is M‡ire’s strongest – and most inviting - music yet. "I was on the road last year, and for the first time I toured solo, with a great young band. I learned from the audience," she says, chuckling that, "for one thing, people love it when I do ‘ooohs.’ They love the wordless singing. I thought, ‘Why not? Other people are following it, so I might as well do so myself. I can’t overdo it." Indeed Brennan has been, since starting recording in 1973, a musical trailblazer at the forefront of Clannad, Celtic music pioneers whose 17 albums have sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide. With their break-through score for the British TV series Harry’s Game (used also in the film Patriot Games and a Volkswagen Passat commercial) and their sound featured in such hit films as The Last of the Mohicans and Robin of Sherwood, and with the success of "In a Lifetime," Brennan’s duet with U2 lead singer Bono, M‡ire’s voice has become instantly recognizable internationally. It’s a remarkable instrument, graceful, supple, inspired. On Whisper to the Wild Water, it finds its finest showcase. "I was very busy last year," M‡ire says of the time during which she composed her new album. "I started working on the music in January and then was on tour in America in February and March. I spent Easter in Nashville for Gospel Music Week. Then I was in Israel performing "Don’t Give Up," which I recorded with Michael McDonald [for Word’s best-selling Streams project]. There were also crusades I appeared in with Franklin Graham and Anne Graham (son & daughter of Billy Graham). But by May, I was really concentrating in my home studio with my husband [photographer/songwriter Tim Jarvis]. When I’m working on an album, I intentionally don’t know exactly where I’m going. I have themes and ideas, and I do a lot of creating in the studio." Working, as she had on Perfect Time, with co-producer Denis Woods and her sister Dee on bodhran (the traditional Irish drum), M‡ire played Celtic harp and keyboards, laying down tracks that this time often incorporated assertive, organic percussion. "I love using drums loops and will continue to do so," Brennan comments, "but sometimes I want to get beyond the ‘World Music’ feel they can create. I went in for more real snare this time." From "I Lathair De (In God’s Presence)," a lovely duet with her mother, Baba, to "Peacemaker," a version of the "Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi" on which M‡ire’s 5-year-old son Paul intones in Gaelic, to the album’s stunning, stark closing, "Bi Thusa Mo Shuile (Be Thou My Vision)," based on a translation her grandfather made of an old Irish hymn, Whisper to the Wild Water is steeped in M‡ire’s rich family tradition. It was at her father Leo’s pub, after all, that Clannad (the name means a family (clan) from the townland of Dore) began performing. The eldest of nine children, M‡ire formed the band with her twin uncles and two of her brothers (after singing with the group for three years, Brennan’s sister Enya departed for a solo career). Skeptics at first chided the band for singing in their native Gaelic, but not only did the singers’ pride in their language and heritage establish Clannad as pathfinders, it was their proud Celtic identity that kept their music perennially popular. "Having sung Celtic music for 18 years," Brennan notes, "I’ve noticed that every five years or so there’s an outburst of interest in Irish things. Lately, that feeling has been helped by Riverdance and the music for Titanic. In the early days of St. Patrick and St. Brigit, about 10 percent of the Irish were missionaries. We just went everywhere. It’s a small country, but people continue to feel drawn to it because it’s a culture that’s filled with a lot of soul." Not surprisingly, M‡ire herself played a part in the Titanic phenomenon, contributing a version of "Come Josephine, In My Flying Machine," (a song her father once sang with his show band), to Sony Classical’s 1998 Back to Titanic album. While continuing to sing with Clannad, whose Landmarks album won a Grammy Award this year, M‡ire has, since 1992, also recorded on her own. Both 1992’s M‡ire and 1995’s Misty-Eyed Adventures reaped critical praise, but it was with 1998’s Perfect Time and its Celtic Christian message that Brennan made her most personal statement. And the reception it generated was phenomenal, prompting US and UK television coverage, cover stories in the UK press, the special ITV documentary "Faith in Music" and a CNN World Beat special. "I love that it meant so much to people," M‡ire says. "And the fact that it stayed so long on the New Age charts means that it’s going to be a constant seller. I feel very blessed." Whisper to the Wild Water builds on the spirit of Perfect Time. As M‡ire says of the title track, the album works on many levels. "’Whisper to the Wild Water’ can mean many things - it can refer to my own voice, which is soft inside the music; it can refer to the ways God calms the storms inside us; it can mean the love that I feel that is so mighty - and yet is a love that many people might not have heard of. I know there are a lot of people who are hungry for spirituality, for that mighty love." From the assertive power of "Follow the Word" ("in that song, adding the reel came from hearing how people loved it when we did Irish reels on tour," Brennan says) to the jubilant drama of "Ageless Messenger" to the grace of "Mary of the Gaels" and "A Sign From the Hills," the album, like the metaphor of water that runs through the songs, gathers intensity as it plays. "Coming from Donegal," M‡ire says, "I grew up beside water, it’s in me." Water, a symbol of healing and strength, also meets the metaphor of stillness. "Yes, there’s stillness in this music," Brennan says, "the stillness of ‘Do not be afraid.’ It reflects where I am today, the great sense of peace I feel." It’s that great sense of peace that M‡ire Brennan hopes her music extends to her listeners. "You know," she concludes, "I’d like to think that this album will be very encouraging. I’d like people to put it on and feel a real calmness." Soon embarking on another tour, and enjoying the success this year of her #1 UK pop hit, "Saltwater," a collaboration with the band Chicane, Brennan is also working on an autobiographical book - an account both of her musical and spiritual journey. But it’s foremost the music and the spirit that enlightens it that will always guide her journey. "I don’t really know exactly what’s next," she says. "But it’s all very exciting. Again, I just feel so blessed to be able to do what I do." # # # |
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