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I'm listening to track 1, "Sometimes when it rains" (6.5mb MP3), right now and love it! Secret Garden is one of my favorite artists. (Way more than 12 Girls Band.) I may write a review later... "Lotus" (6.3mb MP3) is another awesome track I just listened to (features an er-hu). Ack! Track 2, "Fields of Fortune", also is VERY nice!
You can buy Earthsongs here...
![Image](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000001GBJ.01._PE18_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Up until today, my most favorite song from Secret Garden is "Serenade to Spring" from the album, "Songs From A Secret Garden". It has been on the US Billboard for over 2 years now. So, we'll see if any of the songs on this new album will top "Serenade to Spring"
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You can buy Songs From A Secret Garden here...
Here's the press release for Earthsongs:
Secret Garden's 5th studio album has recently just been released in Norway. The CD is titled "Earthsongs" and contains 15 new Rolf Lovland songs. With 3.5 million CD's sold worldwide, this time around they've teamed up with guest artists Brian Kennedy, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Jan Werner Danielsen.
YOU RAISE ME UP
It's been two years since the last CD, "Once in a Red Moon" was released. The album contained the Rolf Lovland's song "You Raise Me Up". The song has since been covered by nearly 40 artists, most notably being Josh Groban's version that topped the Billboard list in the US and sold more than 6 million CD's around the world. "You Raise Me Up" has also been used in connection with a large number of important and highly profiled television broadcasts and events in America, including NBC's broadcast of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the 2004 Super Bowl in honor of the Columbia crew that so tragically perished in 2003, and even more poignantly, at the 9/11 day of remembrance recently at Ground Zero in New York City. RTE (Irish Public Service Television) is now producing a documentary program dedicated in full about "You Raise Me Up" to be aired during Christmas. The program includes interviews with, among others; Secret Garden, Josh Groban and his producer David Foster.
With "Once in a Red Moon", Secret Garden topped the Classical lists both in Australia and Ireland and in the US, the album remained several weeks top 10 on Billboard's New Age list for several months and went Gold in Ireland, Korea and Australia, making "Once in a Red Moon" and international success. The CD sold 60,000 units in Norway, making it one of the best selling albums of 2002. "You Raise Me Up" is currently the most sold sheet music in America.
GUEST ARTISTS
Aside from their success with songs - it is really Instrumental music that is the"core" of Secret Garden. On "Earthsongs", fully eleven of the fifteen cuts are instrumentals. With guest artists such as Ole Edvard Antonsen, Hans Fredrik Jacobsen, ?sa Jinder (Norway) and Mairt?n O?Connor and Mair?ad Nesbitt (Ireland) - it is the Norwegian and Irish influence that characterizes the album. Brian Kennedy, the voice of the original recording of "You Raise Me Up", performs again, this time on the song "Always There" - and Irish inspired ballad with lyrics penned by Brendan Graham. Jan Werner Danielsen interprets "Half a World Away", a song which is also represented as an instrumental on the CD titled "Sometimes When it Rains". The Irish singer, Saoirse, who has lately been touring with Secret Garden, performs "Sleepsong". The closing track of the CD, "Raise Your Voices", is a chorale for choir and orchestra.
THE RECORDING
The recording of "Earthsongs" began in Ireland in June of 2004. The remote yet hyper modern studio, Grouse Lodge, was chosen as the location for the first weeks of the recording with the participation of the Irish musicians. The Symphony orchestra, Choir and vocals were recorded at RTE's main studio in Dublin. After the summer, Secret Garden chose to return to rural setting of PUK Studios in Jutland, Denmark where they had previously recorded parts of their first CD. There they recorded both the Norwegian musicians and Fionnuala Sherry's violin solos. During their Fall tour of China, Secret Garden found time to record with the renowned Chinese "erhu" (Chinese 2-string violin) player. This performance can be heard on the track titled "Lotus". Excerpts of this collaboration called "Gjennom muren" ("Through the Wall") will be shown on NRK (the Norwegian State Broadcasting Corp.) during Christmas. The final mix of the CD was done in Los Angeles together with Alan Mayerson - the well-known film music composer, Hans Zimmer's steady sound recording technician on films such as "The Gladiator", "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Last Samurai".
CONCERTS
Secret Garden has toured extensively large regions of the World this last year. During the spring the band did concerts in Singapore, Korea and Australia. A sold out performance the Sydney Opera House was testimony to the band's popularity. In Korea, Secret Garden performed with the world renowned opera singer Young Ok Shin of the The Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She has subsequently recorded several of the Secret Garden's songs. This Autumn Secret Garden completed a five-week tour of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong - resulting in 18 sold out concert hall concerts. At the same time, A "best of" Secret Garden double CD, called "The Ultimate Secret Garden Collection" was specially released in Korea to and sold Platinum in record time. Recently, another Secret Garden composition, "Adagio", was presented as film music in the highly profiled Chinese film "2046" directed by the prestigious director Wong Kar Wai.
In connection with the Norwegian release of "Earthsongs", Secret Garden recently performed to a sell out audience at the Oslo Concert Hall on December 4th.. The concert featured guest performances by among others, Brian Kennedy, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Saoirse.
FACTS
- 3.5 million sold albums
- Released in 80 different countries
- A total of 27 individual gold records worldwide
- USA Billboard lists: "Song from a Secret Garden" - 2 years. "White Stones" and "Dawn of a New Century" over 1 year. "Once in a Red Moon" - more than 30 weeks
- Twice nominated at the World Music Awards
- Chosen as the "Best international production" in China
- Artist that have recorded Secret Garden's music include among others, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban and Youngok Shin.
- Performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert together with Sting, Tina Turner, Brian Ferry and The Corrs.
- The American TV company PBS has broadcast the Secret Garden concert program "A Night with Secret Garden" repeatedly in the USA.
- The song "You Raise Me Up" topped Billboards Adult Contemporary list with Josh Groban's single from the album "Closer" that has sold more than 6 million copies
- "You Raise Me Up" has been recorded by nearly 40 different recording artists.
- Concert tours on 4 different continents: USA og Canada, South America including Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Asia including Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan og Singapore. Europe - including England, Ireland, Spain, Italia, Poland, Turkey, Finland, Denmark og Norway. And
Australia.
- Winner of the "The Eurovision Song Contest" in 1995 with the song "Nocturne".