All My CDs, pt 77: Celtic Harpy

Celtic Harpy - Elvis Manson

This will be my last Elvis Manson CD review; then I’ll be back to reviewing music that the rest of the world has had a chance to actually know about. But considering that very few people read my blog, and many of them probably also know Elvis Manson personally (or are Elvis Manson personally), maybe I overestimate the obscurity of his albums to my general readership. If not, feel free to check out his soundcloud.

So far Elvis Manson has done Christmas music, rock covers, original rock, and parody, and with this one he branches out into some new-age instrumental stuff, with only a few tracks containing spoken or sung words. The Celtic Harp that gives the album its name, as well as most of the other instruments (including, if I remember correctly, the sounds of waves crashing on the surf) are produced on a synthesizer, with a few other instruments that are not synthesized. But the technology is 21st century and the execution is nearly immaculate, so it hardly sounds fake or overly electronic.

Many of the pieces have melodies recycled from songs he’d written earlier in his career, such as the Twilight Suite which contains tunes and words from Twilight Lake and some others, which are found on albums not currently in my collection.  Canticum Sanctorum is an expanded and cleaned-up version of another old song that lampooned Catholic ritual and biblical language. It’s here stripped of all traces of humor, and what’s left is vaguely occult spookiness at its spookiest.

Familiar as I am with the earlier use of the tunes, I at first found it distracting trying to draw parallels between my memory and what my ears were hearing. But by now I just find the whole thing hedonically enjoyable, familiar or not.

Hope you enjoyed reading of my many and varied impressions of my father’s music, and the subtle and overt influences it has had on my lifelong experience of music in general. Like I said, there are some drawbacks to having a musician in the family. But there are also some perks. This album is certainly one of them.

Next: Girls and Boys