Yet it was the Irish tradition that shaped her life and career, and this delicate version of an old hymn, first reworked by Pete Seeger in the 60s, suggests that an Enya folk covers album could be an intriguing prospect. Given that Enya is an artist whose sound is built from digital processing and production, some would no doubt blow their tops were she described as a folk artist. I’ve even heard it mixed into Whitehouse’s Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel in a techno DJ set.
The title track from Enya’s breakthrough LP, this delicate piano instrumental brings to mind Slowdive’s under-regarded 1995 album Pygmalion, highlighting how Enya can sit comfortably alongside supposedly more credible artists. Smaoitím … (D’Aodh Agus Do Mháire Uí Dhúgain) (1988)Įnya’s exploration of nature is never sentimental, and this affectingly sparse B-side to the jaunty Orinoco Flow is moving in its minimalism, her perfect voice singing of loss in the legend of a tidal wave sweeping ashore in her grandparents’ home of Maragallen, Ireland, and drowning the villagers as they prayed in church. It’s a floaty track interrupted by a deeper bass boom – another pointer to Nicky Ryan’s experimental tendencies. Sumiregusa, inspired by a Japanese haiku, is an ode to the wild violet. The natural world is a constant source of inspiration in Enya’s music. If it’s good enough for a “wrecker of civilisation”, it should be good enough for you.
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Nicki Minaj spoke about her love of Enya on Stephen Colbert’s TV chatshow, saying: “It’s so peaceful, and it helps me with harmonies and sounds … I tap into my Enya.” Colbert made a trite comment about the singer being “like an elf”, and Minaj’s withering glance showed that her appreciation for Enya’s harmonisation, beautifully showcased in Deireadh an Tuath, marks her as a true believer.Įnya’s non-ironic influence on contemporary experimental electronic musicians such as Holly Herndon and Gazelle Twin is well-known, but the fan that surprises many is Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle, who recently selected Only Time as a favourite track. Roma Ryan wrote the lyrics for Aníron in JRR Tolkien’s elvish dialect Sindarin, which in turn inspired her to develop Loxian, a fully realised language for Enya’s Celtic space travellers. Aníron (2001)Įnya’s singular and timeless evocation of vast landscapes and Celtic-inspired otherworldliness made her the obvious candidate to contribute to the soundtracks of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. At one point it featured 100 layered vocals, all eventually removed. A fascinating document of an artist finding her feet, this simple piano sketch would later reappear as a transportive instrumental on Watermark. Miss Clare Remembers (1984)Įnya’s first solo release, as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, was on a cassette compilation put out by the experimental label Touch Travel.
Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy 17. Aldebaran (1987)Īldebaran’s sparkling, synthetic harp and pipes are the backing for a text written by Enya lyricist Roma Ryan that tells of Celtic civilisation voyaging into space in hope of a better future – a concept that sits in curious musical parallel to Afrofuturist techno group Drexciya’s vision of a Black nation living safe from persecution beneath the sea.Įnya in 1997. She’s not a solo artist, but actually a team, and producer Nicky Ryan’s roots were in sonic experimentation, such as designing a vibrating room so that deaf schoolchildren could sense music and dance. March of the Celts showcases the oddness of Enya’s music.
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Indeed, for years it seemed that its ubiquity obscured the stranger treasures in her discography.Īfter Enya left family band Clannad, her solo career struggled until she got a chance to soundtrack the 1987 BBC TV series The Celts. With the plinking, clipped synths and infernally moreish chorus, Orinoco Flow is the Enya song that everyone knows, yet it is arguably the least interesting moment on her breakthrough album, Watermark.
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