Loreena McKennitt recorded her 1985 debut on a farm in southern Ontario, a pastoral setting that infuses every note on Elemental with atmosphere and rustic simplicity.
What's immediately striking is the Canadian harpist's fully realized voice.
Most artists take years to hone their pipes, and that McKennitt brings a nearly finished version to the table on her first outing is not only notable, it's revelatory.
McKennitt presents an evenly distributed mix of new age and contemporary Celtic that evokes the work of Enya, Clannad, and Capercaille, adapting the words of Yeats ("Stolen Child") and Blake ("Lullaby") as effortlessly as she rearranges traditional folk songs like "The Blacksmith" or "Banks of Claudy." Elemental may not have the worldbeat scope or acrobatic arrangements inherent in her later works, but its epic balladry and relative sparseness offers an intriguing look at the artist at her most subtle.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BlacksmithTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 03:19 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 2 | She Moved Through the FairTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 04:02 | 9 MB | 22 MB |
| 3 | Stolen ChildLoreena McKennitt, William Butler Yeats | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 05:04 | 11 MB | 30 MB |
| 4 | The Lark in the Clear AirTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 02:05 | 4 MB | 10 MB |
| 5 | CarrighfergusTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 03:25 | 7 MB | 19 MB |
| 6 | KellswaterTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 05:13 | 11 MB | 33 MB |
| 7 | Banks of ClaudyTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 05:33 | 12 MB | 31 MB |
| 8 | Come by the HillsTraditional | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 03:02 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 9 | LullabyWilliam Blake, Elliott Hayes, Loreena McKennitt | Loreena McKennitt | Play | 04:27 | 10 MB | 25 MB |
| 36 mins | 82 MB | |||||
| 36 mins | 215 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Blake | Composer |
| 2 | Douglas Cambell | Recitation |
| 3 | George Greeg | Bass (Acoustic) |
| 4 | George Greer | Bass (Acoustic) |
| 5 | Elliott Hayes | Composer, Producer |
| 6 | John Hazen | Sound Effects |
| 7 | Billy Mather | Engineer, Mixing |
| 8 | Loreena McKennitt | Accordion, Adaptation, Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Synthesizer), Harp, Multi Instruments, Primary Artist, Producer, Synthesizer, Vocals |
| 9 | Scott McKowen | Design |
| 10 | Pat Mullin | Cello |
| 11 | George Seara | Digital Editing, Digital Sequencing, Sequencing |
| 12 | Cedric Smith | Arranger, Guitar, Vocals |
| 13 | David Street | Cover Photo, Photography |
| 14 | Traditional | Composer |
| 15 | Jeff Wolpert | Digital Remastering |
| 16 | William Butler Yeats | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |