John Doan "Wayfarer: Ancient Paths to Sacred Places (USA, Hearts O' Space, 11095-2)"

John Doan (born May 16, 1951) is an American guitarist and composer.

Doan grew up in Venice, California, and at the age of eleven began playing the guitar, first a 12-string, and later a double-neck electric in a rock band. Later, while studying music at California State University, Northridge he was introduced to classical guitar. He really enjoyed the music for the lute and was amazed at the sound of its many strings. Later when he found a century-old harp-guitar on the back wall of a music store, it called to him with its beautiful shape and unusual collection of extra strings. He relates: "I was achingly curious and wanted to transform its silence and neglect into something alive and vibrant. It was and continues to be an adventure to play music on the harp-guitar." After moving to Oregon, Doan earned his master's in musical education from Western Oregon University and served on the faculty there. He studied the renaissance and baroque lute in the Netherlands. Doan's music has a strong classical influence and he also finds inspiration in folk traditions, Irish musical traditions in particular. He is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, a historian, and a multi-instrumentalist specializing in unusual vintage instruments. Over the years Doan has played with many folk and country artists, including Donovan, Burl Ives, Larry Carlton, Chet Atkins and Mason Williams.

Wayfarer: Ancient Paths to Sacred Places is his fifth album, released in 1999.

Tracklist:

1. Skellig Michael - A Rock In The Sea   4:14
2. Wayfarer - On The Path To Holycross Abbey   4:38
3. Gazing On The Face Of The Sea   4:02
4. Festival   3:35
5. The Way Of My Fathers   5:11
6. A Pilgrim's Hymn   4:10
7. St. Brendan - Recounting The Voyage   4:16
8. Run To Sanctuary   5:00
9. Castle Dinas Bran - Procession Of The Holy Grail   4:20
10. St. Joseph Arrives In Avalon   4:47
11. The Hunter And The Hare   5:21

Total Time: 49:37

CD comes with 20-page booklet.

Recording information:

All selections are produced, arranged, and recorded at Billy's Studio February/March 1999.

Mixed at White Horse Studio, Portland, OR, April 1999.

Mastered at Hearts Of Space.

Mastered by – Bob Olhsson, Stephen Hill

Mixed by – Bob Stark

Producer, arranged, recorded & mixed: Billy Oskay

Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning "Music Of Celtic Legends - The Bard & The Warrior (USA, Windham Hill Records, 01934 11181-2)"

Jeff Johnson (born 1956) is a recording artist, composer, and producer who has released numerous solo and collaborative recordings. Born near Portland, Oregon, he currently resides on Camano Island in the state of Washington.

His early work was vocal progressive-rock, but his sound has since evolved to jazz, new-age, instrumental, contemplative and Celtic styles. His works also include several musical releases based on books penned by fantasy author Stephen Lawhead. Johnson's instrumental releases cover a broad spectrum of Celtic, new-age, jazz and world music genres.

In addition to recording, Johnson has lead a Christian contemplative worship service called Selah featuring music, scripture, poetry and silent prayer.

Music Of Celtic Legends - The Bard & The Warrior is a colaboration album with Irish flutist Brian Dunning, released in 1997.

Tracklist:

1. The Bard & The Warrior 4:48
2. The Dream Of Taliesin 4:18
3. Tylwyth Teg (Fair Folk) 4:55
4. The Crossing 2:24
5. The Fortunate Isle 4:09
6. Lady Sovereignity 4:15
7. CuChulainn's Last Battle 2:54
8. The Raven Stone 3:52
9. Ways Of The Warrior 4:00
10. Isle Of The Everliving 5:42
11. The Ancient Song 2:36

Gjallarhorn "Ranarop"

Gjallarhorn (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjâlːarˌhuːɳ], Finland Swedish: [ˈjɑlːɑrˌhuːrn]) is a Finnish band that performs world music with roots in the folk music of Finland and Sweden. The group was formed in 1994. The band's music echoes the ancient folk music tradition of Scandinavia with medieval ballads, minuets, prayers in runo-metric chanting and ancient Icelandic rímur epics in a modern way.

The group is named after the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology.

The band is Finnish and hails from Ostrobothnia, a Swedish-speaking region on the west coast of Finland, one of the four regions of the historical province of Ostrobothnia and the only region in Finland outside the Åland Islands where more people speak Swedish rather than Finnish.

The music of the band remains Swedish in character. Most of their repertoire is the acoustic folk music of these Swedish-speaking Finns, from the unique minuets and ballads that have only survived in Ostrobothnia, to the old traditional waltzes. The didgeridoo and sub-contrabass recorder offer an underlying drone, a technique shared by some other Nordic bands such as Garmarna. Also notable is their use of the hardanger fiddle and Jenny Wilhelms' kulning, a high-pitched, wordless vocal technique based on traditional Scandinavian cattle-herding calls.

Gjallarhorn was formed in 1994 on the west coast of Finland, in the Swedish speaking area, by Jenny Wilhelms, Christopher Öhman (viola, mandola) and Jacob Frankenhaeuser (didgeridoo). The band started as a trio but became a quartet with percussion in 1996. The band has been a quartet ever since.

Ranarop: Call of the Sea Witch was the first album by Gjallarhorn, released 1997 by Warner Music Finland.

The reworked, remixed and remastered version including an unreleased bonus track was released in November 2002. The CD was chosen "The folk music record of the year 1997" in Finland.

The Allmusic review by Heather Phares awards the album 4 stars and states " Singer/fiddler Jenny Wilhelms leads the quartet in traditional dances and ballads from the Swedish-speaking people of Finland, along with evocative instrumentals penned by the band."

Track listing

1. "Intro" – 1:27
2. "Konungen och trollkvinnan (The King and the enchantress)" – 5:20
3. "Herr Olof (Master Olof)" – 4:14
4. "I fjol så (Last year)" – 3:05
5. "Solbön/Åskan (Prayer for sun/Thunder)" – 6:28
6. "O-vals (Non-Waltz)" – 3:39
7. "I riden så... (Ye ride so carefully)" – 4:28
8. "Sjöjungfrun och konungadottern (The Mermaid and the princess)" – 6:40
9. "Folkesongen (Folk song)" – 4:25
10. "Elviras vals/Oravais menuett (Elvira's waltz/Oravais minuet[3])" – 5:12
11. "Eldgjald (Gjalder song)" – 4:13
12. "Ramunder" – 4:05
13. "Kulning (Calling)" – 1:49
14. "Reindeer Dreaming" (bonus track) – 7:04

Clannad "Magical Ring"

Magical Ring is the seventh album by Irish folk group Clannad. Released in 1983, the album features the band's biggest hit single, "Theme from Harry's Game", which reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart and #2 on the Irish Singles Chart.

Track listing

1. "Theme from Harry's Game" (Pól Brennan, Ciarán Brennan) – 2:30
2. "Tower Hill" (P. Brennan) – 3:51
3. "Seachrán Charn tSiail" (Traditional) – 2:20
4. "Passing Time" (P. Brennan, C. Brennan) – 3:44
5. "Coinleach Ghlas An Fhómhair" (Traditional) – 5:57
6. "I See Red" (Jim Rafferty) – 4:23
7. "Tá 'Mé Mo Shuí" (Traditional) – 3:13
8. "Newgrange" (C. Brennan) – 4:03
9. "The Fairy Queen" (Traditional) – 2:40
10. "Thíos Fá'n Chósta" (P. Brennan, C. Brennan, Pádraig Duggan) – 3:16

Mike Oldfield "Tubular Bells II" (Canada, WEA, CD 90618)"

Tubular Bells II is the fifteenth studio album by English guitarist and songwriter Mike Oldfield. It was released on 31 August 1992 by Warner Music UK and is the successor to his debut album Tubular Bells (1973). It was Oldfield's first album for Warner after having worked with Virgin Records for twenty years. Like its predecessor, Tubular Bells II charted at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and spun off a top 10 single, "Sentinel".

In January 1991, Oldfield's contract with Virgin Records expired, thus ending a partnership that had lasted since 1972 as the first musician signed to the label. Virgin had pressed Oldfield to produce a sequel to his debut album Tubular Bells (1973) for a number of years but Oldfield resisted, partly due to his increasing dissatisfaction in Virgin's efforts to promote his albums and his rift with co-founder Richard Branson. Oldfield also felt that making a sequel in the 1970s, so soon after its release, would have been "far too obvious" and may lead to creative burnout. Tubular Bells became Oldfield's best selling album and had continued to sell around 100,000 copies each year. After releasing Heavens Open (1991), his final album for Virgin, Oldfield felt the time was right to start on a sequel to Tubular Bells. At the same time he signed a two-album recording deal with Warner Music UK following negotiations with chairman Rob Dickins. Oldfield praised management at Warner for expressing interest in his music and offering constructive suggestions that would help sales without feeling "tied by them", as opposed to Virgin.

Before Oldfield started to write music for the album, he revisited Tubular Bells and mapped out its composition into different coloured sections. He kept a progress chart in his home studio, writing directly onto the wallpaper in pen; his first entry was in June 1991 when he recorded the first piano figure for the album.

To produce the album, Oldfield chose Trevor Horn with assistance from Tom Newman, who had also helped to produce Tubular Bells. In 2018, Newman stated that when Horn was brought into the project, he insisted that the instruments be sequenced rather than played by hand, which led to a major falling-out between Newman and Horn. Horn was based in Los Angeles at this time, so Oldfield rented a mansion off Doheny Drive for nine months to record the album and had his home studio equipment and mixing desk shipped to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal. Oldfield gave Horn the nickname Dr. Click, because of his insistence in having each part played in time. Oldfield credited Horn in giving the album "rhythm and groove" which he considered a weak spot in his technique and something that the original Tubular Bells had lacked. Oldfield also credited Horn in encouraging him to play with "more feeling [and] love", as he had become accustomed to playing in an angry way. "When I did, the music started to sing instead of growling at you."

When it came to recording the tubular bells for the album, Oldfield underwent a search to find a set he deemed satisfactory enough as he had destroyed the original bells used on Tubular Bells. He was close to giving up until he visited a percussion shop in London's East End, where he "Found a little set, almost like a toy set. And I hit them once and said, 'yeah, that's it'".

The original Tubular Bells featured a section where Vivian Stanshall was the Master of Ceremonies who calls out instruments being played. For Tubular Bells II, Oldfield and the production team were unsure whether to include a similar part for the sequel and various takes were made, including one of Oldfield doing the part, another featuring Horn in a Scouse accent, a "Disneyland-type voice", and the computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In the end, Oldfield enlisted English actor Alan Rickman to introduce the instruments at the end of "The Bell", which concludes the first half. He was chosen for the "Shakespearean" style of his voice. Rickman's role is credited as "a strolling player", because he had not been chosen to take part when the artwork had been completed. On alternative mixes of "The Bell" released as single B-sides, Billy Connolly and Stanshall each played the Master of Ceremonies. On two alternative language B-sides, German comedian MC Otto and Spanish musician MC Carlos Finaly played the Master of Ceremonies in German and Spanish, respectively.

"Early Stages", which is an early version of what would become "Sentinel", was included as a B-side to the single version of "Sentinel". "Early Stages" has a somewhat darker mood and is from the pre-Trevor Horn development of the album, possibly showing the kind of influence that Horn had.

Unlike the original album there is a recurring theme in Tubular Bells II, first appearing at the end of "Sentinel" that reappears throughout the album, though it is most obvious at the end of "The Bell".

Some of the track titles for the album were taken from Arthur C. Clarke's short stories, including "The Sentinel" and "Sunjammer". Other track titles could just be references to science-fiction or space in general, such as "Dark Star" and "Weightless". Dark Star is also the title of a sci-fi film by John Carpenter which was released in the same year as the original Tubular Bells, 1973.

Oldfield has occasionally called some of the tracks on the album by different names in interviews, such as once when he performed "Red Dawn" on BBC Radio 2 he called it "Russian". The title "Russian" was also later given to the equivalent piece on the re-recorded version of the original Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003.

Tubular Bells II again uses the bent metallic tube (representing a bent tubular bell) as the focus of the album artwork. The bell is a golden colour on a dark blue background as opposed to Tubular Bells' grey/silver bell on top of a sea/skyscape. Both the photos for Tubular Bells and Tubular Bells II were produced by Trevor Key.

The album reached number 1 in the chart in the UK and Spain.

Critical reception to the album was mixed. Writing in Q magazine, Mat Snow described it as a "more consistent but less tune-happy musical sequence than TBI" and praised "producer Trevor Horn's fairy dust" as an advantage.

The album was supported with a live concert on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle on 4 September 1992 with 6,000 people in attendance, which aired on national television one hour after its conclusion. It featured Scottish actor John Gordon Sinclair as the Master of Ceremonies. In October 1992, the show was released on home video as Tubular Bells II: The Performance Live at Edinburgh Castle. Oldfield toured the album with his Tubular Bells II 20th Anniversary Tour 1992/93, which visited the US and Europe between March and October 1993.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Mike Oldfield.

1. "Sentinel" 8:07
2. "Dark Star" 2:16
3. "Clear Light" 5:48
4. "Blue Saloon" 2:59
5. "Sunjammer" 2:32
6. "Red Dawn" 1:50
7. "The Bell" 6:59
8. "Weightless" 5:43
9. "The Great Plain" 4:47
10. "Sunset Door" 2:23
11. "Tattoo" 4:15
12. "Altered State" 5:12
13. "Maya Gold" 4:01
14. "Moonshine" 1:42

Released in standard jewel case with black tray including an 8 page accordion-folded booklet with tracklist (no timings) and credits. Some copies with [Warner "W" logo] injection print on the lower right corner of the front lid.

Distributed by/Distribue par Warner Music Canada Ltd., 1810 Birchmount Rd., Scarborough, Ontario M1P 2J1. A Time Warner Company.