Reviewed by Dancin' Dave Derbyshire

This tape was accompanied by a letter headed St Theresa's Roman Catholic Church. On playing the tape I was impressed by how St Theresa's musicians have weaved in some beautiful Celtic sounding instrumental pieces between the clear sounding solos, duets and singing of the church choir. The blurb explains the theme of the album, "We trace time from the creation to the completion of life in the coming of God." For example, the song "Gardens" takes us through the story of the fall in the garden of Eden to the sending of Jesus to create a new garden of redemption. It describes this event as "a new beginning/new creation of earth and of the heavens". Other songs take us on journeys through the seasons of the church calendar and from the womb to childhood and finally to death. More importantly, when his Word breaks through our time in "St John's Prologue", we are shown the way to be "born of God's love". In the song "Magdaline", Mary witnesses not only the death of her love, Jesus, but also his resurrection. The ecumenical thinking of this group comes over in the song "I Have A Dream". They sing, "We pray religions may unite/in love of truth, if not of God". The whole song is a cry for human rights for which it is hoped that all religions will one day work together. Overall, I found the atmospheric sounds of a church organ and the echoing voices of choristers are used to good effect. There are some interesting uses of organ and piano with some harp and haunting violin. The trained voices and beautiful accompaniment do work well together. Though this sort of music may not be your cup of tea, especially if you are not used to high church styles of worship, it is still well worth having a listen.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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