The music is inspired by the spirituality (and thus, the music) of the
early Celtic converts to Christianity at the places on the Isles where the
faith first broke through : Iona and Lindisfarne. There is a budding Christian community at
Iona. Anyway, Dave Fitzgerald was drawing spiritual blanks after
years of making music for British Christians, until he
strangely drove himself 100 miles out of his way to get to Lindisfarne; Dave
Bainbridge was a fellow bandmate who was taken by the way Fitzgerald suddenly
started digging into the history of the British church; Joanne Hogg was
recharged spiritually at Iona. Talk about getting back to the beginning...)
There are hints of others' music in here : U2, Mike Pinder, Vangelis,
Clannad, Van Morrison, Jeff Johnson, Paul
Winter. And it fits with that stuff in feel. Bainbridge and Fitzgerald are
the driving force behind that sound,
pulling Iona as a whole into a spacey direction. Undoubtedly, we'll see
solo works which will go even further in the Celtic numinous sound
direction. Meanwhile, they've imparted a very special feel to this band
which makes one very impatient for the next album, as the band as a whole
grows into this big sound.
Joanne Hogg is lead vocalist; she's already good, but there's still room
for growing into the Iona sound. This sort of music is at its best when it
is haunting, and she gives that feeling
especially well on "Here I Stand".
For the purpose on my radio show, 'Visions Of Naran' worked best. It had some degree of accessibility, some amount of haunt, and a lyric which conveyed the mystical feeling very well.
(c) 1991 Robert Longman Jr. All Rights Reserved.