Songs from the Labyrinth

I was browsing through the aisles of Music One in ATC with my twin and our good friend, Denden, when I saw :

I've been looking for this album since November of last year!!

Here's what it says on the back cover:

On Songs from the Labyrinth, Sting discovers the music of Elizabethan songwriter John Dowland: "beautiful melodies, fantastic lyrics, great accompaniments." In close collaboration with lutenist Edin Karamazov, he interweaves songs with instrumental solos and evocatives readings from a Dowland letter. Together they create what Sting calls "a musical soundtrack" to the composer's life.

I bought it on the spot and am currently listening to the exquisite tracks. Sting is AMAZING! He even contributed to the lute accompaniment (but most of it is done by Karamazov). Bagay na bagay sa Yuletide season ... especially the songs with "carol" singers, haha! I love the "reading-aloud-from-letters" tracks, Sting has a lovely speaking voice as well as his singing voice.

My favorite, thus far, is Have you seen the bright lily grow by Robert Johnson (1583-1633), the only song on the album that isn't composed by John Dowland (1563-1626). Graaaaaabe... my soul seemed to take flight when Sting sang the opening line...

Have you seen the bright lily groooooooooow

(and he literally "grew," singing an octave above and touching briefly on all the notes but treating them each with the utmost care... ach, so wunderbar!! Sting may have an "unschooled tenor," to borrow his words, but he sings with such intelligence and sensitivity!!!)

Have you seen the bright lily grow

Before rude hands have touched it?

Have you marked but the fall of snow

Before the earth hath smutched it?

Have you felt the wool of beaver,

Or swan's down ever?

Or have smelt o' the bud o' the brier,

Or the nard in the fire?

Or have tasted the bag of the bee?

O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!

He has a lovely version of Come again, but I find myself partial to Kathleen Battle's version. His isn't half bad... I loved how he sang the last verse:

All the night

My sleeps are full of dreams

My eyes are full of streams.

My heart takes no delight...

To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die

With thee again in sweetest sympathy.

Miss Battle sings all the verses pretty much the same, and colors the words differently for more variety. But Sting goes further... in this, the last verse, the lute accompaniment is stilled and he sings the first four lines (and the four lines ONLY) a capella, oh so slowly, oh so softly. It's indescribable... the beauty of it!! And then the lute comes in, finishing the song for him.

Inspired, simply inspired!

I like Ms. Battle's less adventurous version better, though. To do justice to HER artistic genius would take a blog entry that would take me hours to type! :) Some other time, maybe.

I will defer further rapturous comments over Sting's album 'til I'm done listening to the whole thing, and now it's time to go back to my Peak Oil readings. ;)