What People are Saying...
Your CD is absolutely beautiful! I heard it 3 times in a row! ..... What also floored me was your writing in front. You are very much in tune with what very many other Godly Women are saying and praying. Outstanding music, strong message and God is with you!
In Christ, Katja
I received your cd today and took a bit of a road trip to listen to it ......... it is fabulous - one that I would listen to at the spa or just needing to sit quietly and think upon good things.
Elaine
Fantastic job on the production.......some of the tracks are very haunting I love the pipes of course. I think there will be many prayer warriors and Intercessors putting this disc on in their prayer gatherings as they beseech the lord of heaven to hear the cry of the people of God for his Kingdom to advance in the earth.
Margaret
I just wanted to let you know that I think your cd is exceptional…. I just love it and it has brought me a lot of peace as I’ve been driving all over the place! I especially love I AM and Sleeping Prayer and I having a blessed time finding even another harmony in the midst of all of yours.
Thank you for creating this wonderful work of art.
Michelle
I got your CD. I haven't had a chance to listen to everything yet, but what I did hear is absolutely awesome. So far, in my opinion it's your best. Which means a lot, because your previous albums were already so good. Way to go!!! .....I think my favourite will be the first song. The sound is incredible!
Angela
Dear Lianna
First of all - thank you for following your heart and putting together 'The Guest'.I have been playing it as I read scripture, prepare Bible study, or just sitting quietly.The lyrics - as prayers - and the music, the feel, the choice of instruments....all contribute to encourage meditation and reflection. There's a kind of yearning in the music - it stirs the heart. In this month's prayer memo that I send to the Women Alive teams, I will talk about meditation and suggest 'The Guest' as a wonderful addition.
Caroline Laing - Prayer co-coordinator for Women Alive
Reviews
REVIEW: Out of Borderland
Christian Week Magazine
Album has less preaching, more meditative praise
By D.S. Martin
May23,2008 - Volume 22 Number 05
www.christianweek.org
 lide Lianna Klassen's latest CD, The Guest, into your player, and you're in for a richly-textured musical experience. The opening song, “Laudate Dominum” (Bless the Lord), begins with a low hum that rumbles from the depths of your speakers and the undulations of a distinctly Celtic whistle as Klassen's fluttering voice repeats these Latin words in an Arabian-sounding chant. It creates a mysterious sense of spiritual yearning reminiscent of ancient monasteries and desert mysticism.
The hand drums that introduce “Morning Prayer” seem to draw us from our meditation, as the multi-tracked voices leap into faster-paced worship.
“Holy One, Glorious One, Father, Spirit, Son, The Triune One…” The first time you listen, the words will probably slip by largely undeciphered, yet as you return to it the phrases become clearer and clearer until they carry you with them. It is her voice's breathy, overly-melodic quality along with the echoing, layered sound that slows our perceptions.
Her singing has an articulation similar to Máire (Moya) Brennan who has released beautiful Celtic Christian CDs, and is lead singer of the Irish group Clannad, or to other contemporary Celtic singers such as Loreena McKennitt or Brennan's sister, Enya.
The third track, “Adoramus Te Christe,” like several others, returns to smooth Latin phrases which create a classical sense but whose familiar words such as “alleluia” and “amen” make them very understandable.
All of these songs are original to this CD, even though many of them resonate with the centuries-old spirituality of Celtic believers. Some use words directly from the distant past including “Celtic Blessing: You Are The Peace” which comes from sources more than a thousand years old. “You are the door that's open wide / You are the guest who waits inside / You are the light, the truth, the way / You are the hope that meets the day...”
Similarly, in “I See His Blood Upon The Rose” Klassen brings new melody to an old poem.
Besides using piano, fiddle and guitar, Klassen's album plays beautifully with traditional sounds using harp, recorder, whistles and Ulliean Pipes.
Although Celtic flavourings existed on her recent CDs, I believe she has brought all of the elements together much more consistently here and with better results than ever before. On her previous album, Borderland, Klassen often seems to be imitating Enya's pop style. The best moments on that CD are the tracks that most closely foreshadow The Guest instead of giving in to more commercial sounds. The album, for the most part, was recorded at Whitewater Studios in Surrey, B.C. with help from Christian music veteran Roy Salmond.
Another way in which Klassen has grown is that she has trimmed the preaching from her lyrics. Instead, her truth-telling has been channelled into beautiful praise. For most songs Klassen wrote her own lyrics with a strong simplicity reminiscent of the Psalms.
“Oh, Lord hear my prayer and hear my cry… Lord have mercy… I pray.” She still felt the need to include a five-step plan of salvation in the liner notes, but at least she doesn't do this in her songs.
The Guest flows from early morning to the final cut “Sleeping Prayer,” and is intended to carry us through various aspects of prayer. I suspect that most listeners will not remain that focussed from beginning to end, nor will they use it as a manual for prayer, but will be drawn in at various points while listening to this lovely, praise-filled music. I'm not saying that Klassen's intent is misguided, but simply that the album's blessings may flow in slightly different ways than she first envisioned.
D.S. Martin is a Canadian poet and writer. His poetry chapbook So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press) is available from www.dsmartin.ca or www.rubiconpress.org
[back to top] [back to music] |
