''An Ancient Muse'' is the seventh full-length studio album of the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

singer, songwriter, accordionist, harpist, and pianist,

Loreena McKennitt Loreena McKennitt (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic music, Celtic and Middle Eastern music, Middle Eastern influences. McKenni ...

. It was released on November 20, 2006, internationally, and November 21, 2006, in the United States and Canada. It was her first studio album after a 9-year gap. It has sold over a half a million copies worldwide since its release.

Overview

Work on ''An Ancient Muse'' started in 2005. According to reports on McKennitt's Quinlan Road website, most of the inspiration for the tracks of the album came from the music of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. Most of the tracks, with the exception of three revealed at the mid-September concerts in the

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Muslim world, Islamic world. Additionally, the ...

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

in Spain, were completely unknown until the release. ''An Ancient Muse'' debuted on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 at number 83, with about 19,000 copies sold in its first week. This was also its peak position on the chart.

Track listing

All music and lyrics written by Loreena McKennitt except as noted. # "Incantation" – 2:35 # "The Gates of Istanbul" – 6:59 # "Caravanserai" – 7:36 # "The English Ladye and the Knight" (lyrics by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

) – 6:49 # "Kecharitomene" – 6:34 # "Penelope's Song" – 4:21 # "Sacred Shabbat" (

Kâtibim "Kâtibim" ("my clerk"), or "Üsküdar'a Gider İken" ("while going to Üsküdar") is a Turkish folk song about someone's clerk ('' kâtip'') as they travel to Üsküdar. The tune is an Istanbul türkü, which is spread beyond Turkey in many coun ...

arr. Loreena McKennitt) – 3:59 # "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" – 9:32 # "Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit)" – 5:54 ;Bonus tracks # " Raglan Road" – 6:12 – an unreleased track on a bonus disc exclusive to

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

# "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" (Gordian version) – 9:25 – exclusive iTunes Store remix

Personnel

* Tal Bergman –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(2, 3),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(5, 8) * Stuart Bruce – vocal

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

(1, 8), percussion (5) *

Clive Deamer Clive Deamer is an English drummer and percussionist who has been the drummer for the jazz band Get the Blessing since 2000. He has worked with acts including Radiohead, Portishead (band), Portishead, Jeff Beck, Alison Moyet, Siouxsie Sioux, Roni ...

– drums (8) * Panos Dimitrakopoulos – kanoun (2, 3, 5, 7, 9) * Nigel Eaton –

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

(3, 5) * Ben Grossman – hurdy-gurdy (5) * Ed Hanley –

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

(5), udu drum (5) * Jason Hann – percussion (8) * Steáfán Hannigan – Turkish clarinet (1, 5, 8), vocal drone (1, 8),

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...

(8, 9) * Brian Hughes –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

(1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9),

guitar synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partnership) such as ...

(1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9), vocal drone (1, 8), oud (2, 3, 5), Celtic

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

(2, 3, 5, 8),

nylon string guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string a ...

(5, 8, 9) * Charlie Jones:

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

(5, 6) *

Manu Katché Manu Katché (born 27 October 1958) is a French drummer and songwriter of Ivorian descent. He has worked extensively as a session musician, notably with Sting and Peter Gabriel, and his solo albums as a bandleader are largely in the jazz fusio ...

– drums (5) * Georgios Kontogiannis – Greek bouzouki (2, 3) *

Tim Landers Timothy Gerard Landers (born November 1, 1956) is an American bassist best known for his contribution to the 1970s-80s jazz-fusion genre and his work with Al Di Meola, Billy Cobham, and Gil Evans. Landers is a session musician and was a member of ...

– bass (2, 3, 8) *

Caroline Lavelle Caroline Lavelle is an English singer-songwriter and Cello, cellist who has created three solo albums and contributed vocals, music, and production help to many other artists and bands. Career Lavelle studied at the Royal College of Music in L ...

–

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) * Rick Lazar – percussion (1, 5, 8) *

Annbjørg Lien Annbjørg Lien (born 15 October 1971) is a Norway, Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa. Career She first came to national prominence in 1986. Shortly afterwards got a recording deal with the H ...

–

nyckelharpa ''Nyckelharpa'' (, roughly "keyed fiddle" in Swedish language, Swedish, , plural: ) is a "keyed" Bowed string instrument, bowed chordophone, primarily originating from Sweden in its modern form, but with its historical roots scattered across med ...

(6) *

Hugh Marsh Hugh Marsh (born June 5, 1955) is a violinist from Toronto, known for his electric violin sound. Marsh was nominated for a 2007 Juno Award in the best contemporary jazz album category. Early days Marsh was born in Montreal, Quebec and brought ...

–

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

(3, 5, 6) *

– vocals (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9), keyboards (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9),

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

(3),

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

(4), percussion (5),

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(8) * Marco Migliari – vocal drone (1, 8) *

Donald Quan Donald Quan (born 1962) is a Canadian composer of film and world music, best known for writing the film score, scores to television shows ''Relic Hunter'' and ''Mutant X (TV series), Mutant X''. Career Born in Toronto, Ontario, and schooled at the ...

–

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

(1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9), vocal drone (1, 8) *

Hossam Ramzy Hossam Ramzy (; 15 December 1953 – 10 September 2019) was an Egyptian percussionist and composer. He worked with English artists including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Siouxsie Sioux, as well as with Arabic music artists like Rachid Taha and K ...

– percussion (2, 5) * Sokratis Sinopoulos –

lyra , from ; pronounced: ) is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was often represented on star ...

(2, 3, 7, 8) *

Haig Yazdjian Haig Yazdjian is a Syrian-Greek composer, vocalist, Oud player, and producer. He was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1959. His parents are Armenians from Kayseri and Nevşehir in modern-day Turkey. For much of his life he has lived in Greece, which is whe ...

–

oud The oud ( ; , ) is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have ...

(2, 3, 5, 6, 7) * Choristers of Westminster Abbey; Alex Pott, Elliot Thompson and Nicholas Morris – vocals (4)

Chart performance

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancient Muse, An Loreena McKennitt albums 2006 albums