Marketa Irglova
“Take me to the point of my creation/Take me where my life began/I was born into this world/What had I intended then?/What had I chosen for a destiny?/Am I living it right now?/I have this feeling I’ve forgotten something/Tell me...”
These are the first lines of “Point Of Creation,” the opening track on Marketa Irglova’s second solo album. Entitled Muna (“remember” in Icelandic, a recurring theme throughout the eleven songs), the collection was written and recorded in Iceland, the Czech singer-songwriter’s new base of operations. “I had been to Iceland for the first time about four years ago to play a show with The Swell Season,” she recalls. “When a friend of mine recommended a studio in Iceland for recording my second album, I didn’t hesitate. I am inspired by the open space, the wilderness of the nature here, the strong energy coming from the land, and I am comforted by the people who seem so at one with it.”
Muna is an album that takes the Oscar-winning singer’s music further into the realm of the ethereal. If her debut Anar explored the dynamic of intimate personal relationships, the new record is a document of spiritual searching. Written over the course of a year, and recorded in six months with producer/engineer Sturla Mio Thorisson, it utilizes full choral, string and percussion sections, plus guests Rob Bochnik (The Frames), Iranian daf player and vocalist Aida Shahghasemi, and Marketa’s own sister Zuzi on backing vocals. All told, the album’s cast-list runs to some 27 players. In keeping with the choral textures, Muna is an album of saints, angels and psalms (the Lord’s Prayer makes an appearance in “Without A Map”). The songs were, admits Marketa, partly inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. “Both lyrics and music are spectacular,” Marketa says of the classic musical, “and the exchanges between characters are so seamless, one forgets one is listening to a song and not a conversation. It has inspired me to write my own songs as conversations.” Muna, then, is a conversation between this beloved singer and the audience who has been devoted to her since she first charmed them in her 17-year-old debut in the film Once.
As a member of the Swell Season with Glen Hansard (The Frames), Marketa Irglova has sold over a million albums, including 840,000 of the film soundtrack for Once.
Marketa Irglova both starred and performed in the treasured film Once, for which she won an Academy Award for the song “Falling Slowly.” The film and its music has since been translated to Once the Musical where it went on to win 8 Tony Awards and is currently both still running both on Broadway and touring the world.
Marketa will be touring the US this October in support of Muna. Contact us with any requests!
RIYL: Swell Season, The Once Soundtrack, Jolie Holland, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush
TRY: #11, 3, 4 (Radio Edits of all 3 included in download folder)
Download full album here:
https://www.piratepirate.com/downloads/
More Info Here:
http://marketairglova.com
https://www.facebook.com/MarketaIrglova
https://twitter.com/MarketaIrglova
http://www.anti.com/artists/marketa-irglova/
http://www.last.fm/music/Markéta+Irglová
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markéta_Irglová