WOVEN CORD

This was my first encounter (if PA's mp3's are not counted) with this Celtic Prog Folk band that I'm very willing to hear some more! IONA have a lot of folk elements - Uillean pipes, tin whistles, violin... even Gaelic language here and there - and a clean female voice, so the natural comparison is CLANNAD. Their main difference is of course that Clannad is not progressive (instead it's whole lot poppier) and IONA is. They have a Christian attitude which honestly isn't very much heard in their music. This one is a concert with All Souls Orchestra in 1999. The orchestral arrangements are carefully done by the other leading figure besides Joanne Hogg, guitarist Dave Bainbridge. I presume I'd prefer IONA without the presence of an orchestra.

In other words, I got a bit bored with, for example, tender instrumental 'Overture' and other orchestral moments. I don't much remember the individual songs after three listenings; though some tracks have more rock elements than others, the whole of it may lack some extra spice. Maybe it gets better with further listenings. There were some excellent guitar solos and the music is good all the way, but I guess there was not a track that I was DEEPLY charmed by. But as I said, I'm hoping to hear their studio albums. My feelings of this sounding perhaps too mild, edgeless and clean is after all not a reason enough to rate it less than 4 stars.