Secret Garden - 5 Albums (2012) {Universal Music}

Secret Garden is an Irish-Norwegian band specialized in new instrumental music, led by the duo consisting of Irish violinist and singer Fionnuala Sherry and Norwegian composer, arranger and pianist Rolf Løvland. The group has sold over 3 million albums since having won the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest, representing Norway with the composition "Nocturne".

Eurovision Song Contest
The group won the Eurovision Song Contest for Norway's second time in 1995 with the composition "Nocturne". It was the only time to date that a predominantly instrumental piece has won the Eurovision Song Contest, although a few Norwegian lyrics, written by screenwriter Petter Skavlan, were included to ensure that the entry adhered to the contest's rules. Norwegian singer Gunnhild Tvinnereim sang the song in the Eurovision Song Contest, with Hans Fredrik Jacobsen on penny whistle and Swedish nyckelharpist Åsa Jinder guesting on the occasion, although none of them are regular members of the group. Ten years earlier, Rolf Løvland wrote the song "La det swinge" (Let it swing) that secured Norway its first Eurovision Song Contest victory in 1985.

Songs from a Secret Garden
Their success at Eurovision spearheaded the success of their first album Songs from a Secret Garden. It sold a million copies around the world going platinum in Norway and Korea, gold in Ireland, Hong Kong and New Zealand and spending two years in the Billboard new-age charts in 1996 and 1997. Barbra Streisand adapted "Heartstrings" from this album as the song "I've Dreamed of You" on her A Love Like Ours album. She also used "Heartstrings" in her wedding to James Brolin.

White Stones
The album White Stones followed in 1997 also making the top ten on Billboard New Age charts. Dawn of a New Century, again with lyrics by Norway's Petter Skavlan, in 1999, Dreamcatcher in 2001 and Once in a Red Moon also enjoyed success around the world including reaching top ten on the Billboard.

Their most famous song "You Raise Me Up", performed by Johnny Logan and Brian Kennedy, has been recorded by more than a hundred other artists including Josh Groban, Russell Watson, Westlife, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Becky Taylor, Celtic Woman, Lena Park, Robert Tremlett, Il Divo, Rhydian, and Sergio Dalma.

Secret Garden has released a Dreamcatcher: Best Of album for its tour through Australia and New Zealand in 2004. It reached the top of the Australian New Age charts and the ARIA top 50 album charts.

Their piece "Adagio", with a cor anglais solo, was used in the Wong Kar-wai film 2046 released in 2004.

In 2010, Fionnuala Sherry released her solo debut entitled Songs From Before.

Autobiographical book
In 2015, Secret Garden published a book entitled You Raise Me Up: The Story of Secret Garden co-written by Rolf Løvland with Fionnuala Sherry. The book tells their story of their triumphs as well as the trials and tribulations they endured along two decades.





On their second album, duo Secret Garden play with the conventions of Celtic and neo-classical music, weaving in unexpected elements like Spanish guitars and Eastern European folk melodies as their muse dictates. Norwegian pianist Rolf Lovland composes striking instrumentals for which Fionnuala Sherry's violin supplies the lead voice. Just about every song here features a lavish orchestral arrangement, but it's Sherry's violin that speaks loudest and touches the heart most tenderly. Her fluid, emotive technique shines on tracks like "Appassionata," and is made all the more admirable knowing that she was recovering from serious injuries and in great physical pain during the recording sessions.

The overall mood is weighty, heart-centered, providing a supportive background for personal reflection. The beautiful melancholia lifts a bit in tracks like the polyrhythmic intoxication of "Windancer" and "Escape," which evokes Gypsy caravans and circus performers run amok. ~ AllMusic Review by AllMusic



Track List:
01. Steps
02. Poeme
03. Hymn to Hope
04. Moving
05. First Day of Spring
06. Passacaglia
07. Reflection
08. Windancer
09. Appassionata
10. Escape
11. Sanctuary
12. Celebration
13. Home
14. Illumination
15. Nocturne (Norwegian Version)

Bass – Eoghan O'Neill
Choir – Irish National Chamber Choir
Composed By, Arranged By, Producer, Keyboards, Piano, Conductor [Irish National Chamber Choir] – Rolf Lovland*
Conductor [Rte Concert Orchestra] – Fiachra Trench
Drums – Robbie Casserly
Engineer [Additional Recording Assistant Engineer] – Alessandro Benedetti, Jan Erik Kongshaug, Nick Friend, Ronny Talsaete
Engineer [Assistant Recording And Mixing] – Conan Doyle, Jonathan Ford
Engineer [Pre-production Co-engineer], Sampler [Sound Samples] – Alf Emil Eik
Guitar – Des Moore
Keyboards – Bjorn Ole Rasch*
Leader [Orchestra Leader] – Michael D'Arcy
Liner Notes – 服部のり子
Mastered By – Greg Calbi
Percussion [Orchestral Percussion] – Joakim Nordin*
Performer [Orchestra] – RTE Concert Orchestra*
Photography By – Dorothy Low
Recorded By, Mixed By, Co-producer – Andrew Boland
Score [Orchestral Score] – Fiachra Trench (tracks: 4, 5, 10), John Tate (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14), Rolf Lovland* (tracks: 3, 7)
Violin – Fionnuala Sherry

Recorded and mixed in Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin Ireland.
Additional recording made in Capri Digital Studio, Italy and Rainbow Studio, Oslo Norway.
Pre-production and additional recording made in Cross Studio, Kristiansand Norway.

Reissue from Secret Garden featuring the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD players). Part of a five-album Secret Garden SHM-CD reissue series featuring albums "Songs From A Secret Garden," "White Stones," "Dawn Of A New Century," "Once In A Red Moon," and "Earthsongs."






The fourth album from these Norwegian new age snoozers takes a more ambitious approach than its predecessors. Based around some sort of conceptual theme (something to do with the millennium and eternity and destiny), Dawn of a New Century is really just more languid instrumental tracks occasionally pumped up with some ostentatious moralizing. It doesn't get much duller. ~ AllMusic Review by Michael Gallucci



Track List:
01. Moongate
02. Prayer
03. Elan
04. Dreamcatcher
05. Sona
06. In Our Tears
07. Children of the River
08. Evensong
09. Lore of the Loom
10. Aria
11. Divertimento
12. Aquarell
13. Dawn of a New Century

Accordion – Martin O'Connor*
Arranged By, Conductor – Fiachra Trench (tracks: 7, 12), John Tate (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11), Rolf Løvland (tracks: 2, 5, 13)
Backing Vocals – Alf Emil Eik, Nikki Matheson
Backing Vocals, Composed By, Producer, Arranged By, Keyboards, Piano – Rolf Lovland*
Bass – Per Elias Drabløs
Bodhrán, Spoons, Bones – Tommy Hayes
Choir – Anúna
Classical Guitar – Lars Hanniball*
Co-producer – Fionnuala Sherry
Dizi [Chinese Flutes] – Steinar Ofsdal (tracks: 7)
Drums, Percussion – Noel Eccles, Ottar Nesje
Electric Guitar – Terje Rypdal (tracks: 1)
Engineer – Alf Emil Eik, Andrew Boland, Oskar Pall Sveinsson*, Trond Engebretsen
Guitar – Rolf Kristensen
Guitar [Additional] – Alf Emil Eik
Hardingfele [Hardanger Fiddle] – Annbjorg Lien*
Keyboards – Bjørn Ole Rasch
Lead Vocals – Anne Karin Kaasa, Fionnuala Sherry (tracks: 5), Karen Matheson (tracks: 2), Nikki Matheson (tracks: 4)
Liner Notes – 服部のり子
Lyrics By – Eyvind Skeie (tracks: 6)
Narrator – John Kavanagh
Oboe, English Horn – Henrik Eurenius
Orchestra – Irish National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Recorder, Bagpipes – Hans Fredrik Jacobsen
Uilleann Pipes – Mick O'Brien, Pat Broaders
Violin – Fionnuala Sherry
Whistle – Hans Fredrik Jacobsen, Mick O'Brien

Made In Japan.

Reissue from Secret Garden featuring the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD players). Part of a five-album Secret Garden SHM-CD reissue series featuring albums "Songs From A Secret Garden," "White Stones," "Dawn Of A New Century," "Once In A Red Moon," and "Earthsongs."






The global phenomenon of Secret Garden has been so far reaching that it's hard to believe the duo of Norwegian keyboardist/composer Rolf Lovland and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry have only recorded three previous studio albums in addition to their 2001 compilation, Dreamcatcher. Once in a Red Moon continues Secret Garden's tradition of organic storytelling melodies and straight-from-the-heart performances with a wink back to the innocence and raw simplicity of their debut. Lovland and Sherry felt that their second and third recordings, White Stones (1997) and Dawn of a New Century (1999), were conceived as larger-scale projects which would help build the scope of their live performance presentation. This time, they wanted to let the natural performance of the piano and violin be the leading force; to this end, they built their productions based on the first, original sensitive and raw takes in the demo phase. There are also some unique new elements: guest appearances by the Irish National Symphony Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra players performing live in the studio fronted by Sherry (five of which were scored and conducted by Steven Mercurio, musical director for Andrea Bocelli); guest vocalist Karen Matheson of Scotland (on the ethereal universal love message "The Gates of Dawn" and the dreamlike, atmospheric "Greenwaves," with lyrics by Ann Hampton Calloway, who wrote the words for the Barbra Streisand song based on another Secret Garden track); Swedish harpist Asa Jinder, who worked on Secret Garden's debut and helps define the Nordic/Celtic mix of the duo's music; and world-renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, duetting with Sherry's violin on the sweetly melancholy "Duo." Once in a Red Moon also features a once-in-a-lifetime musical experiment. Via their website, the duo asked people to participate in the new album by sending them "the global C," recorded on a piano. They received piano chords from all over the world, creating a global energy of sound for the final chord of the emotional closing track, "Elegie." ~ AllMusic Review by Jonathan Widran



Track List:
01. Awakening
02. You Raise Me Up
03. Silent Wings
04. Greenwaves
05. Invitation
06. Duo
07. Belonging
08. Gates of Dawn
09. The Promise
10. Fairytale
11. Once in a Red Moon
12. Elegie
13. I Know a Rose Tree (Bonus Track)






Pure and simple this is new age Celtic-flavored pablum. There is little compelling here except for the near-virtuoso violin playing of Fionnula Sherry. There are some vocals placed in here, all of them near a whisper and evoking breathlessly the magic just beyond the night sky, the glen, the next kiss or some such. It's very difficult not to be cynical when music like this is not created seemingly as an end in itself with a very, very small but dedicated market niche in mind. Generic, bland and boring. ~ AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek



Track List:
01. Sometimes When It Rains
02. Fields of Fortune
03. The Reel
04. Always There
05. When Darkness Falls
06. Sleepsong
07. Lotus
08. Searching for the Past
09. Daughters of Erin
10. Half a World Away
11. Grace
12. Raise Your Voices
13. Silence Speaks (Bonus Track)
14. Canzona (Bonus Track)






According to pianist Rolf Løvland, Irish-Norwegian neo-classical duo Secret Garden's seventh studio album, Winter Poem, was inspired by the "darkness that surrounds the Scandinavian winter." While there's a genuine sense of melancholy laced throughout its largely instrumental 11 tracks, fans of their luscious new age sound needn't fear a new gothic reinvention, as there's very little here likely to find its way onto a horror movie soundtrack. Indeed, the stately piano chords and sweeping string arrangements (courtesy of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra) of opener "Make a Wish" feel more suited to a Downton Abbey-esque costume drama, while elsewhere the lilting "Anticipation" recalls the emotive ivory-tinkling of Ludovico Einaudi's understated scores, the more uptempo "Fionnuala's Cookie Jar" is a highly percussive Irish jig packed with Celtic fiddles and tin whistles, and "Suite," a 15-minute overture written especially for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, reveals that Løvland and violinist Fionnuala Sherry are capable of realizing their symphonic ambitions. The three vocal tracks are just as quintessentially Secret Garden. "The Dream" is a lavishly haunting affair underpinned by muted beats, emotionally stirring strings, and lullaby-ish melodies, sung by Clannad's Moya Brennan in her own unmistakable ethereal style; Riverdance vocalist Fionnuala Gill lends her quivering glass-shattering tones to the atmospheric ballad "Mary's Lament"; while "Powered by Nature" (written by Brendan Graham, the man responsible for the now ubiquitous "You Raise Me Up") is a valiant attempt to replicate the anthemic qualities of their most enduring song. Winter Poem is unlikely to convert those who have previously likened their music to wallpaper, but while it's true that there's nothing particularly challenging or inventive on offer here, it's hard to disagree with the opinion that what they do, they do very well. ~ AllMusic Review by Jon O'Brien



Track List:
01. Make a Wish
02. Song for a New Beginning
03. The Dream
04. Frozen in Time
05. Anticipation
06. Fionnuala's Cookie Jar
07. Mary's Lament
08. Song at the End of the Day
09. Lament for a Frozen Flower
10. Powered by Nature
11. Suite: Prelude / Intermezzo / Polka / Air / Interlude / Hymn
12. Nocturne (Bonus Track)
13. You Raise Me Up (Bonus Track)




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