After Enigma

Moya

Two Horizons

Imagine a combination of the trademark Enya feel with a little bit of Moya's previous folkier sound, a healthy dose of heavily processed drumbeats, and add a touch of Loreena McKennit. That's a good approximation of Two Horizons. In case you don't keep up on your Irish musician genealogy, you might find it interesting to know that Moya (Maire Brennan) and Enya (Eithne Brennan) are sisters. Furthermore, the rockier Irish band Clannad is composed family members, and Maire/Moya was a founding member of the band in the early 70's. Enya's involvement was apparently limited to a short stint in the early 80's. This should help to explain both the similarities of this album to Enya's works, and why Moya wasn't afraid of getting sued over the likeness in sound ;)

The album is remarkably cohesive, especially given the musical involvement of over 25 of Moya's closest friends. Lush voices and pads provide consistent backing for Moya's Enya-esque vocals, as well as harp (played by Moya) and string solos with obvious Celtic influence. The very notable departure from the Enya stereotype is the percussion. A combination of world percussion and traditional rock beats, given a very unique character through heavy processing (for those who speak music tech, it sounds like filter/EQ work to me), usually blend in quite well. There are a few counterexamples, such as Mothers of the Desert, in which the kick drum is a little too much. The River is probably the best, and most representative track - I advise sampling it from Amazon if you're on the fence about buying this one.

Two Horizons doesn't have any really great tracks - however, none are really dissapointing (save the final "bonus" track, which is a dance remix - it does a pretty good job of ruining the incredible consitency of the rest of the album). If you want a solid album that you can put on and not have to worry about skipping any tracks, this one could be for you. Of course, for Enya and Maire fans, it's a must have.