Iona - Open Sky (remastered)

Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Originally released in 2000 this has all the extraordinary Iona musical elements in place and was for many their finest work since 1992's 'The Book Of Kells'. The opening track is a nearly 10 minutes instrumental full of the famed Bainbridge guitar runs and sets the haunting Celtic mood for what follows. Troy Donockley's uillean pipe medley on "Castlerigg" is another standout while Joanne Hogg's effortless, haunting vocals continue to produce a wistful dream-like mood wherever they appear. The events that inspired the compositions here - when on the Isle of Hinba the Spirit visited Columba in his shuttered house - is the stuff of mystical legend. What for me is conveyed in these billowing soundscapes is a feeling of transcendent joy when the album reaches its climax in the three part "Song Of Ascent" the picture of sea and sky, earth and space are marvellously conveyed.