ARTIST: Luka Bloom
TITLE: Innocence
LABEL: Big Sky Records / RMG
GENRE: Folk
TIME: 46:43 min
SIZE: 61,5 MB
RIP DATE: Feb-20-2005
RELEASE DATE: Feb-21-2005
Track List:
01. Primavera 04:47
02. First Light Of Spring 03:03
03. Innocence 03:10
04. Venus 04:00
05. Miracle Cure 04:23
06. Peace On Earth 02:57
07. Gypsy Music 04:16
08. City Of Chicago 03:29
09. June 03:59
10. Salvador 02:43
11. No Matter Where You Go, There You Are 05:22
12. Thank You For Bringing Me Here 03:18
13. Larry Redicon's Bow 01:16
Release Notes:
Autumnal shades pervade Luka Bloom's 10th album,
Innocence. All the road miles, pedal rotations and
late night concerts have wrought a burnished tint to
the man who's given us classics as diverse as the
languid 'Sunny Sailor Boy', the lonesome and
harrowing 'The City Of Chicago' and the
unapologetically defiant 'You'. And now, 10 albums
on, Luka Bloom's musical journey has brought him to
a place where songs seep from every pore, and
melodies celebrate the ordinariness of life.
Some musicians grow wizened by the road; Luka Bloom
has thrived on it. He and his acoustic motorbike are
one, their molecules intertwined, an echo of Flann
O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds. Luka's travels have
stretched his tendons, his muscles and his
imagination in ways none of us could have
anticipated, and Innocence captures that journey ?
not so much with surgical precision, as with a
magical ear for life's hidden details.
The album's opener, Primavera is a delicious taster
of Bloom's vocal elasticity, as well as his
emotional maturity. "Me, see me now, I am August
oakleaf / You, yes you are, you are Primavera". A
delicate glimpse of the contradictions and
conundrums of the ageing process that few artists
ever deign to admit.
'Gypsy Music' reeks of a hankering for a glimpse at
the new world of Eastern Europe. Scaffolded by Ken
Edge's clarinet and Eithne Ni Chathain's haunting
backing vocals, Luka Bloom conjures a world where
more is unknown than known: a rarity for all of us
who live in a time where knowledge is power and
information is everything.
Innocence's title track will strike a cord with
anyone who harbours distance memories of church
incense and a childlike fascination in the
mysterious ritual of benediction. But it's much more
than that; 'Innocence' is a glorious valediction to
a time when inexperience was something to be
relished rather than something to bring an
embarrassed flush to the cheek.
Luka Bloom still manages to keep the best of
company too. Kenneth Edge's soprano saxophone and
clarinet conjure a mood reminiscent of Van
Morrison's Astral Weeks. Ray Fean lends the subtlest
of percussion; Joe Csibi adds double bass and Pat
Collins' fiddle roams free and wide. Mohamed
Bouhanna's derbuka adds the final essential
ingredient that defines Bloom?s delight in Ireland's
growing multiculturalism. And enmeshed in all the
songs, as well as in the two instrumental interludes
of Innocence, ?Peace On Earth? and ?Larry Redicon?s
Bow? is the spirit of a musician who?s long let go
of the cocky defiance of youth, who bears the scars
and celebrations of daily life with a comfort born
of the same regrets, delights and minor triumphs
that we all share. 'No Matter Where You Go, There
You Are' sums it up sweetly, on the back of Bloom's
trademark uncompromising guitar lines: "No matter
where you go, there are you / So don't let go of
what you know to be true".
Luka Bloom's come home and Innocence charts his
return with a delicate ear for the detail.