THE CIRCLING HOUR

Iona albums offer alternate very strong pieces, full of fervor and passages soothed, comfortable and moving songs with folk arrangements "mainstream", interspersed with floats "new age". A slope that might not be the most popular with fans of hardcore prog. If Open Sky (2000) had two or three more titles like this, too smooth, it is no longer the case here. And if The Circling Hour is in the tradition of its predecessors (no stylistic revolution), it is also much more lively, more raw, more dense, free of any incentive to sleep or sentimentality. it prefers the more ambitious side of the group like the song "Empyrean Dawn," which recalls the most hectic times of the first Waterboys. Even the more accessible songs, those that can sing in the shower, have something to bite them moving away from the simple refrain. Martial battery, like a heart beat and pulse shaking. "Strength" is well in his time, without kowtowing to the supposed credibility infuriating rock. A line of low aerodynamic, which darkens gently, is melodic, took singing without losing its dark resonance , "Wind off the Lake" is a kind of helping hand to the music of U2, a symbol of timeless modernity . With "Sky Maps," as explosive signed Troy Donockley we speak well of bravura set pieces if there were none at all over the record, marching without downtime. It is not bravery, it's temerity. In fact, the most "big" piece is called "Wind, Water and Fire," and listening, a real pandemonium of rhapsodic fantasies comes at your fingertips. I just desire to describe these synth sounds, both short and wide as muffled; describe the contact fingers Dave Bainbridge on guitar strings, neither stroke nor caress, a touch, an outcrop that seems to come from so far away, when he embraces the guitar body; describe the vehemence deployed to love God, so close to universal human thoughts; describe this force and what force! In his own hesitations, repetitions. In this profound and incomprehensible song that raises this desire, this desire to go to God. Uncover the mystery. "Wind, Water and Fire" is the kind of music to cross border some mysterious deep in ourselves to sneak through a door that leads to the most secret chambers of the heart to fill to the brim with her radiant presence. This record makes them happy but not smug, plunges us into our own euphoria. Let's be clear: this is the end of the great musical depression, the death of compulsive shopping too quickly regretted listening to the first CD. As in the music of Iona in the lower notes, the most rhythms in melodies, songs that seem to climb towards freedom, we perceive a given time frame love and the space life. A poignant love as it does not deny the link that weaves the love of God and that God attaches to the point of not talking about nothing else. Musically, The Circling Hour has enough assets to touch you, resonate with you forever, even if you are not particularly sensitive to the mystery of the Holy Spirit. And if there has only two kinds of music, as claimed many musicians, this bright new album is part of the student who unleashed souls and feet when we play and when we listen.