Smith & Co

W.B. Yeats said that as a boy he longed to hear poems spoken to the harp as he imagined poets of old to have spoken them. In this album Claire Hamilton blends Celtic harp and voice to transport the listener back to ancient times. Under her hands the harp becomes a magical gateway into the realm of the Otherworld – a world of gods and goddesses, love affairs, magical spells and enchantments from the myths and legends of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Claire Hamilton is a well-known figure in Celtic harp world, having recorded many solo albums. She is also a published poet and writer of several books on mythology.

Claire Hamilton has made many recordings on harp and Celtic harp. She studied classical harp with David Watkins, Professor at the Guildhall School of Music. Since then she has become fascinated with the Celtic harp and Celtic Myth and has been studying and writing about it. She has also been experimenting with ways to present words and music together in the manner of the old bards who, it is thought, punctuated their narratives with set pieces, describing heroes or events in the stories. One of her specializations is to perform spoken words to harp and she has toured with the Company of Strangers presenting her work in their production of Celtic Myth.

Claire Hamilton studied classical harp with David Watkins (Professor at the Guildhall School of Music) and since then has extended her repertoire to include Popular, Celtic and World music. She enjoys being versatile in performance and owns a range of harps to suit different occasions. She plays a beautifully restored Victorian concert harp for formal functions, an electric harp when playing with bands at festivals, and a traditional hand-carved Celtic harp for solo storytelling.

On Celtic Harp Romance Claire has taken some of the most recent great love songs such as Nelly Furtado's "All good things (come to an end)", Shakira's "Underneath your Clothes", Robbie William's "Angels", Jamie Blunt's "You're Beautiful" and Michael Bublé's "Everything" and adapted them to the beautifully soothing sounds of the Celtic Harp. Recent sales of her album "Wild Rose" has shown that there is a major market for this type of instrumental album. It is essential that the product is not only racked in the retail stores, but also gets a high profile with the online retailers such as Amazon and Bol.com. This is the music that appeals to a very wide group of people who, more importantly, still buy CD's !

A tried and proven category, there seems to be an on-going interest in Gregorian music, probably because of the never end stress of this modern high tech world we live in. When an opportunity arose to license some of the finest Gregorian music recorded, we couldn’t refuse. Schola Gregoriana in Italy is dedicated to the preservation of not only Gregorian, but also medieval religious music and is regarded as one of the leading institutions in this field.

Always relevant, the need to take time to unwind and relax is ever present and the harmonic chanting of these religious passages seems to provide people with the cure all that we need.
This 2 CD package contains simply some of the finest Gregorian music on the market and should prove a steady seller for some years to come.