"The
Mask And Mirror"
Loreena McKennitt's travels through
Spain and Morocco flavor this album with a distinctly Mediterranean
tinge, from the opening "The Mystic's Dream," with its
dancing percussion arrangements, to "Marrakesh Night Market,"
to "Full Circle" and the instrumental "Santiago."
"Marrakesh Night Market" is an especially strong performance,
with an interesting musical texture; the balalaika, udu drum,
and dumbek are played alongside a synthesizer. As usual, Loreena
McKennitt has set a poem to music, this time Yeats's "The
Two Trees," with a lovely introduction on the Uillean pipes.
There's also "The Bonny Swans," a traditional lyric,
and the CD closes with Shakespeare, as McKennitt sets some of
Prospero's words from The Tempest to her own music. Excerpts from
McKennitt's journals, included in the CD booklet, make for interesting
reading as they shed some light on her source material and inspiration
for writing each song.