This CD was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007 for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
Canadian Celtic/new age/worldbeat architect Loreena McKennitt may be an odd choice for the legendary jazz label that released benchmark albums from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, but Verve may have been moved by the undeniably talented harpist/composer/vocalist's large collection of globe-spanning gold, platinum, and multi-platinum sales awards. McKennitt's records (this is her first set of new material since 1997's Book of Secrets) tend to play like independent soundtracks to National Geographic documentaries - kind of like a more ornate, expensive version of Dead Can Dance. An Ancient Muse may break little new ground for McKennitt, but it won't disappoint longtime fans…

Mark Knopfler has the luxury of being selective about soundtrack work, and this is only his tenth film score in 17 years. It may be that he waits for films that can benefit from his approach, which is generally a lighter version of what he used to write and perform for Dire Straits and what he does on his solo albums. The soundtrack albums of his films usually are so closely identified with him that it's a dilemma where to shelve them in the record store, and this one is no exception; it is billed on the cover as "a Mark Knopfler soundtrack." The music will come as no surprise to anyone who's seen and heard such previous Knopfler soundtracks as those for Local Hero and The Princess Bride. There are some Scottish themes in keeping with the movie's setting (it's one of those sports films about a hapless team that somehow reaches a championship)…

Cal is a soundtrack album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released on 24 August 1984 by Vertigo Records. The album contains music composed for the 1984 film Cal, produced by David Puttnam and directed by Pat O'Connor. Puttnam also produced the film Local Hero (1983). In his review for AllMusic, Steven McDonald gave the album four our of five stars and called it a "quiet, reflective set of cues that eschew false dramatics in favor of supporting the story." In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the album "an exceptionally lovely and haunting score."

Didier Squiban has been a loyal companion of the Orchester National de Bretagne for over twenty years. After the recording of his first two symphonies, the Symphonie Bretagne and the Symphonie Iroise, we were able to complete the symphonic trilogy imagined by Didier Squiban by recording in 2021, the Symphonie du Ponant, in the company of great performers such as Baptiste Trotignon on the piano and Airelle Besson on trumpet. La Symphonie du Ponant looks away, towards the seven islands off Brittany, towards the setting sun, towards the high seas… This symphony composed of Breton melodies is sublimated by improvisations proposed by masters of the genre. An orchestration full of colors, magnified thanks to the richness of a symphony orchestra and the direction of the Morlaisian Ariane Matiakh.

The history of this album is as follows: In the mid-'80s, Enya recorded the soundtrack for a BBC television documentary called The Celts. The music was released on BBC Records in the U.K. in December 1986 under the title Enya. It was released initially in the U.S. on Atlantic Records in 1986. In November 1992, WEA Records in the U.K. issued a revised version of the album under the title The Celts, containing a newly rerecorded track, "Portrait (Out Of The Blue)."

Following on their impressive debut album [*Ex]tradition*, the Curious Bards—an early-music ensemble founded by violinist Alix Boivert in 2015—continue to explore material from the Scottish and Irish folk traditions preserved in 18th-century publications. This new collection of airs and dances is a chance to discover more of this fascinating repertoire, in which the distinctions between serious music and popular inspiration need no longer apply.

With producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, Scotland's Big Country managed to deliver earnest, socially conscious arena anthems in a similar vein to U2 and the Alarm. The twist was their trademark bagpipe sound, achieved through the use of E-Bow. The unique sound of "In a Big Country" garnered the band considerable attention and a Top 20 single in the U.S. The Crossing, however, is an album whose richness goes beyond the single. The more subdued "Chance" is sparser and its personal lyrics are every bit as heartfelt as the more populist-inclined anthems like the wonderful "The Storm" or the thundering "Fields of Fire." The lyrics are straightforward and, despite the grand themes of many of the tracks, manage to steer clear of being overly pretentious. While this album earned the band a gold record, Big Country's sound and image (reinforced by the members' tartan checked shirts) resulted in them being tagged a novelty, and they never duplicated their initial success in America.

Having enjoyed such fruitful collaboration with the Spanish musician Rafael Pacha (both in The Guildmaster project and albums under Kimmo's own PA artist page, plus within The Samurai Of Prog), Kimmo Pörsti insisted they should make a CD consisting of revisited material from Pacha's solo output. As Rafael says in his liner notes, there have been two major paths he has followed and combined as a musician, those of Folk (e.g. the Celtic tradition) and of progressive rock. The source albums are mentioned - without their release years though - but the liner notes concern his thoughts of the individual tracks and their recordings then and now, with a fondness for various occasional collaborations. You really can feel the labour of love attitude of this gifted multi- instrumental musician and composer.

The story of the Cranberries is one of dogged survival. Debuting with a maiden release that everybody seemed to rate as a portent of great things, the band suffered not only a "difficult" second album but also an absolute stinker of a third one, as the bandmembers strove desperately – too desperately – to live up to their reputation for sensitivity and thoughtfulness, and completely lost sight of their true virtues in the process. Internecine squabbling, health problems, and general disaffection all took further toll, so much so that, as the band prepared to release its fourth album, 1999's Bury the Hatchet, many observers were shocked to learn that the band even existed any longer, let alone was capable of actually making a new record – especially one that was as good as Bury the Hatchet turned out to be. Filmed at the Paris Omnisport de Bercy on December 9, 1999, toward the end of that album's accompanying tour, Beneath the Skin captures the full 84-minute concert performance, with the band ranging and, occasionally, raging through a veritable greatest-hits collection.