Celestial Stones
Celestial Stones is evocative, haunting and sometimes foot tapping spiritual folk at its best. With songs encompassing Stonehenge, Avebury, Newgrange, Bryn Celli Ddu and ancient yew trees on a journey of the sacred landscape, the album took Car Dia (Susan Paramor) seven years to write as she first visited each sacred site, wrote the song, then returned to sing it to the site itself.
The album opens with Callanish – Sacred Moon, one of my favourites it begins with a haunting sound which develops into a traditional foot tapping sing along. Newgrange – Out of Mist, is a beautiful evocative honour to the Ancestors. Then we make our way to Avebury, dancing our journey to an upbeat track. Sacred Witchy Tree, a prayer to an ancient, begins with the atmospheric sound of crows. There are two tracks dedicated to Stonehenge: Stonehenge Winter Solstice, slow and ‘stately’, and Stonehenge Summer Solstice, a bright cheerful sound bringing to mind a summer’s day. Bryn Celli Ddu had me imagining sitting by a fire listening to someone sing you a story, the tale of The Dark Grove of the Land. Brighid – Daughter of Dagda sounds deceptively simple yet is beguilingly expressive.
The album ends with Tomb of the Eagles, starting with the clarion call of eagles shrieking and evolving into a melding of song and basic drum beat, it is another you can find yourself singing along to. And indeed it had me singing long after the CD had finished … and inspired. I simply must take a day off and go out to explore the sacred land for myself soon!
Celestial Stones by Car Dia is ethereal, exquisite, uplifting and inspirational. Highly recommended!
Album Details: Car Dia. Celestial Stones. Paramor Productions (26 April 2017).
Review Details: Celestial Stones was reviewed by June Kent, Editor of Indie Shaman magazine; the review was published in Issue 34 of Indie Shaman.
Buy on Amazon: We receive a small commission if you buy via the link below which helps with the costs of running this website. (Please note – the link below will not show if you use an ad-blocker. Please disable your ad-blocker for this website if you would like to view).
