Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Rolf Lovland (arranger, conductor, piano, keyboards); Gunnhild Tvinnereim, Rhonan Sugrue, Irish National Chamber Choir (vocals); Des Moore (guitar, mandolin); Asa Jinder (keyfiddle, keyharp); Fionnuala Sherry (violin); Andrea Marlish (harp); Davy Spillane (Uilleann pipe, low whistle); Hans Fredrik Jacobsen (Norwegian whistle, whistle); Deirdre Brady (flute); David Agnew (oboe, cor anglais); Jean Lechmar (clarinet); Bjorn Ole Rasch, Jon Kjell Seljeseth (keyboards); Noel Eccles (percussion). | | RTE Concert Orchestra includes: John Tate (conductor). | | Engineers: Oskar P. Sveinsson, Andrew Boland. | | Recorded at Syrland Studio, Reykjavik, Iceland; Windmill Lane Studio, Dublin, Ireland; Major Studio, Oslo, Norway; Puk Studio, Kierby, Denmark. Includes liner notes by Rolf Lovland. | | Personnel: Gunnhild Tvinnereim (vocals); Rhonan Sugrue (soprano); Des Moore (guitar, mandolin); Andrea Marlish (harp); Fionnuala Sherry (violin); sa Jinder (fiddle); Davy Spillane (Uilleann pipe); Jean Lechmar (clarinet); David Agnew (oboe, English horn); Roland Lovland (piano, keyboards); Giovanni , Giovanni Marradi (piano); Bjorn Ole Rasch (keyboards); Noel Eccles (percussion). | | Audio Mixers: Roland Lovland; Oskar Pall Sveinsson; Erik Avnskog; Jan Erik Kongshaug. | | Liner Note Author: Roland Lovland. | | Recording information: Major Studio, Oslo, Norway; Puk Studio, Kierby, Denmark; Syrland Studio, Reykjavik, Iceland; Windmill Lane Recording Studio, Dublin, Ireland. | | Ensembles: Secret Garden; RTE Concert Orchestra. | | Photographer: Mick Hales. | | Arranger: Roland Lovland. | | Secret Garden is Norwegian composer Rolf Loveland (piano, keyboards) and Irish violinist Fionnula Sherry. The album, however, offers much more than this duo; it is awash in orchestral strings (real ones), a choir (real one), and as many percussionists, harps, fiddles, keyboards, and whistles as are needed. Songs from a Secret Garden, a chart-topper in Europe, is unabashedly romantic, absolutely gorgeous. "Sigma," featuring boy soprano Rhonan Sugrue and the Irish National Choir, is very pensive, like dried flowers left, an expected return disappointed. The lyrics begin, "I search for the sign that will set my soul free." Although Celtic music fans will find many moments of bittersweet nostalgia between the violin, pipes, and pennywhistles, the album's closest musical relation might just be the intimate works of Maurice Ravel, particularly his "Pavanne for a Dead Princess." Romantic themes of true depth, played full out. Secret Garden is not afraid of tenderness nor beauty. ~ Carol Wright | | Even if you've never heard the music of Secret Garden, you've probably seen the film, or rather, the countless films that tell tales of passion and unrequited love. Secret Garden's soaring violins and elegantly spare piano work make their songs ideal for wedding ceremonies, but that isn't to diminish the group's potency. | | On SONGS FROM A SECRET GARDEN, composer-pianist Rolf Lovland and violinist Fionnuala Sherry draw liberally, and often simultaneously, from their Norwegian and Irish backgrounds, whether on the spirited "The Rap," the delicately framed "Papillon," or the elegiac "Chaconne." |
Producer: Rolf Lovland; Roland Lovland |
Musical Guests | | Davy Spillane |
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