Iona
Open Sky
Reviewed by Jamie Lee Rake
After two live albums and a solo set by lead singer Joanne Hogg, progressive Celtic rock veterans Iona finally found inspiration to get back into the studio. For a wide breadth of music fans, it should be worth the wait. Open Sky derives lyrical inspiration from a couple of recent losses by death experienced by Hogg and the healing God brought to her in various ways. Where other, more literal-minded bands might turn those seeds of artistry into propagandistic, simple-minded blather, it's just like Iona to take things deeper. That means, in a nuanced playing of art rock tradition, songs that take their own sweet time to unfold and envelop the listener in earthy exotica. The apex of that approach comes in the three-part, nearly 22-minute "Songs of Ascent." More approachable for those with a pop radio attention span would be "Hibna" (another of the group's numbers based on places and people within Celtic Christian history). What with the current environment for spiritually positive and evocative top 40 fodder, Hogg's ethereal alto and her mates' brawny aural atmospherics could just give Rick Dees something of Iona's to announce on his countdown show (and better them than Enya again, eh?). At its heart, however, Open Sky is neither about the grandiosity of the band's gift for suite-making, nor their appropriateness for mass consumption. Instead, it's as complete a statement the group has made for the unity in its ethnically diverse approach to art rock. Too, it's an album in which to get lost in its crashes and whispers of instrumention and Hogg's reverent and enchanting poetry about her faith experience and the One who provides that faith. The Wal-Mart new age heads (musically) who buy those Pure Moods compilations and the subterranean obscuritanists digging on prog bands like Ozric Tentacles should both find enough to appreciate here and get a dose of heartfelt allusions to the Almighty in the bargain. Only the final track, "Friendship's Door," detracts from the beauty here, as it brings the creative circle 'round with (sampled?) allusions to the ten tracks preceding it only slightly less than successfully. Otherwise, testimonies to the world of godly folks' creativity in adventurous, thoughtful rock don't come more eloquent than this.