Search - Iona :: Beyond These Shores

Wonderful Album! One of my favorites of all-time!

J. Rich | 07/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Iona are a band from the British Isles. Their overall sound is so dynamic it consists of many different styles of music such as Celtic folk, progressive rock, and new age. Before I get into the musical aspect of this album I want to mention the incredible musicians in this band which are:





Dave Bainbridge - guitar, keyboards, programming, string arrangements

Joanne Hogg - vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar

Mike Haughton - soprano/alto/tenor saxophones, flute, recorder

Nike Beggs - chapman stick, wal 5 fretted and fretless bass, ashbury bass

Terl Bryant - drums and percussion





Guest musicians on "Beyond These Shores"



Troy Donockley - uilleann pipes, low whistles, e-bow guitar

Peter Whitfield - violin, viola

Robert Fripp - guitar and Frippertronics

Frank van Essen - solo violins

Debbie Bainbridge - oboe

Fiona Davidson - Celtic harp

String Ensemble - Francis Cummings - violin, Mansell Morgan - violin, Richard Williamson - viola, Anna Frazer - cello, Christopher Hoyle - cello, Rebecca Whettan - cello





The music in this album is very much in the vein of Celtic progressive rock with a new age edge to it. There are many songs on this album that had my jaw dropped completely because I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. This album is so hard to review because EVERY song on this album is fantastic! Some real highlights for me were the following songs:





"Treasure" - what can I say other than this could easily have been a Grammy winner, in fact this whole album should have won one something



"Edge of the World" - a really soft ballad, beautiful vocals and a great underlying melody



"Bird of Heaven" - an epic song with so many dynamics that it's hard to describe the power of this one, there such a beautiful solo by Dave Bainbridge on this song....I would go as far as to say this is my favorite Iona song of all time



"Burning Like Fire" - another very progressive pop type song, great melody with an undercurrent of synths and yet another Dave Bainbridge solo that he just smokes and reminds me of Allan Holdsworth in the beginning of the solo the way he just rips right into it



"Beachy Head" - fantastic song, I love the way this song was arranged or orchestrated, the instrumentation with the string ensemble was just amazing, great sax playing from Mike Haughton



I really liked the whole album. I mean this is one of those desert island albums to me. I don't think I can live without this album at all. Listen with an open mind and make sure you listen to everything going on within the music. This album has some really incredible things happening. Can you hear what I hear? If you do then you'll be listening to this album for a long time. This album and "The Book of Kells" are the best albums by this band and I have most of their albums and those two really impressed me the most and left me wanting more.









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