Music
is like a tree, forever growing new branches and extending its roots.
The Lovers are part of one of music's newer offshoots, born out
of maturity, but fed by the desire to express. It's not music for
pop charts. It's not music for mosh pits. It's music for the inner
being, quiet, gentle, engaging music that you play when you want
to be at peace with yourself. Enya does it. Mareena McKennitt does
it. The Lovers do it. Mary Doumany and Jeremy Alsop came to it from
different directions. Mary, a classically trained harpist with a
pure singing voice wanted to challenge herself musically. Jeremy,
jazz prodigy and rock musician, wanted to play the music in his
soul. They came together musically and otherwise as The Lovers,
and called their first album 'Embrace'. The name said everything
about their encounter musically and personally. Six years later
comes 'Black Orchid'. This name and the music it represents balances
something beautiful with its darker side. That gives this album
a different power, a different inner strength. The cover of the
first album was black, intimate. The cover of this album is bright,
outgoing. Some of the songs on 'Black Orchid' were started at the
place when the first album was born and Mary and Jeremy's journey
started. Some could never have been written then. 'Black Orchid'
is painted on a much larger canvas than the first, using more colours,
is much richer sonically, more about the sound of Mary's voice than
the novelty of her harp playing, Jeremy's musical imagination circling
her in a much broader arc. Literally in the middle of the album,
like a recess from Mary and Jeremy's own creations is their interpretation
of the Burt Bacharach classic 'The Look Of Love'. From start to
finish the album floats majestically with the kind of music that
you listen to at night by the light of a single candle or when,
with a whole day in front of you, you open the doors and windows
to breathe in the morning air. (Gotham/BMG)
Music
is like a tree, forever growing new branches and extending its roots.
The Lovers are part of one of music's newer offshoots, born out
of maturity, but fed by the desire to express. It's not music for
pop charts. It's not music for mosh pits. It's music for the inner
being, quiet, gentle, engaging music that you play when you want
to be at peace with yourself. Enya does it. Mareena McKennitt does
it. The Lovers do it. Mary Doumany and Jeremy Alsop came to it from
different directions. Mary, a classically trained harpist with a
pure singing voice wanted to challenge herself musically. Jeremy,
jazz prodigy and rock musician, wanted to play the music in his
soul. They came together musically and otherwise as The Lovers,
and called their first album 'Embrace'. The name said everything
about their encounter musically and personally. Six years later
comes 'Black Orchid'. This name and the music it represents balances
something beautiful with its darker side. That gives this album
a different power, a different inner strength. The cover of the
first album was black, intimate. The cover of this album is bright,
outgoing. Some of the songs on 'Black Orchid' were started at the
place when the first album was born and Mary and Jeremy's journey
started. Some could never have been written then. 'Black Orchid'
is painted on a much larger canvas than the first, using more colours,
is much richer sonically, more about the sound of Mary's voice than
the novelty of her harp playing, Jeremy's musical imagination circling
her in a much broader arc. Literally in the middle of the album,
like a recess from Mary and Jeremy's own creations is their interpretation
of the Burt Bacharach classic 'The Look Of Love'. From start to
finish the album floats majestically with the kind of music that
you listen to at night by the light of a single candle or when,
with a whole day in front of you, you open the doors and windows
to breathe in the morning air. (Gotham/BMG)