Loreena McKennitt-14th Icon of Echoes and Constance Demby Remembered
Loreena McKennitt arises as the 14th Icon of Echoes. She has been one of the defining artists on Echoes for most of our 31 years. She came up during the Celtic craze of the early 90s but transcended that with albums like The Book of Secrets, The Mask and Mirror and An Ancient Muse, creating a lush, often driving world fusion sound that drew upon eastern motifs. And then there were her songs themselves, sung by that voice. Journey on the caravanserai of Loreena McKennitt.
Then we remember Constance Demby (May 9, 1939 – March 20, 2021). If there was a queen of New Age music, it was Constance Demby. Throughout the 80s and into the 2000s she created expansive works with a flair for the gothic and lush strings. Although she was a new age artist, she was something of an experimentalist, creating two instruments made from broad swatches of sheet metal that she would either bow or strike. The ones that appear most in her music were the Space Bass and Whale Sail. She also played hammered dulcimer which features in her early music including the side long tracks of Sacred Space Music. She recorded several albums on the Hearts of Space label. We’ll sample some of her music as we send Constance Demby beyond the world, something she wanted her music to do.