Customer Reviews

Illuminations

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Genuinely mysterious and absorbing, this is one of the more striking works to come out of the "psychedelic" sixties. On many of the songs, Buffy teamed up with Peter Schickele (yes, P.D.Q. Bach in his other life!) on songs that featured primitive but effective electronic experimentation. "God is Alive, Magic is Afoot," is one example, as BSM sings across/over an eerie musical backdrop that the listener gradually comes to recognize is a heavily treated recording of her singing the same song. In spite of the experimentation, it's spine-chilling and beautiful.
At the same time, Sainte-Marie kept her folk roots and her social consciousness intact. The voice-and-acoustic "Suffer the Little Children," with its commentary on capitalism, would not sound out of place on her earlier albums, and the downright sensuous "Guess Who I Saw In Paris" is one of her best love songs.

The real fascination here, though, is how far afield Buffy goes. In "Keeper of the Fire" she provides a Jorma Kaukonen like guitar solo with her voice on the ride-out, and "Poppies" is outrageously trippy and far ahead of its time, reminding the listener of an early version of Enya or Loreena McKennitt.

The album was not a commercial success in its day, primarily because it was so "out of character" for what Buffy's fans wanted. But thirty-odd years later it still sounds subversive and strange. The album combines Buffy Sainte-Marie's natural warmth and power with eerie and transcendent moments quite unlike anything else out there at the time (or now). Very much a lost classic, "Illuminations" is not just for folkies. Anyone with an interest in psychedelia or the unusual will find a lot to like here. One of her best and well worth having.

Buffy Sainte-Marie really left the "moldy figs" in the dust with this one.This album made history as the first quadrophonic, electronic vocal and instrumental album. Even now, modern day alt-rockers cite this album as an influence. From the opening Leonard Cohen track "God is Alive, Magic is Afoot" to the closing "Poppies" the listener gets a slice of psychedelic 1969 with technology well ahead of its time. Meanwhile, acoustic cuts such as "Dream Tree", while remininiscent of her earlier "Winter Boy" and "Eyes of Amber" nevertheless fits well into this electronic, Velvet Underground-esque album. For modern day shuffle play CD listeners, this album will fit in as well with Sonic Youth as it does with Odetta.

I recently bought this album on c.d. after having the L.P. for about 25 years. On some tracks Buffy misses the mark but there is enough treasure on this set to keep any Buffy fan enraptured. The best tracks have a surreal quality that sends shivers down the spine. My favourite song is The Angel with it's funeral bells,sublime vocal and unworldly lyrics. The album contains only a few of the artists own songs but this leaves room for her superb interpretations of other peoples works. These include songs by Leonard Cohen and Ritchie Havens. Above all this album is experimental-years ahead of it's time. Turn on this album lay back and be transported by aural magic and THAT VOICE!

Hearing this CD now, after all this time, reminds me of why artists like Buffy Sainte-Marie should not be forgotten. Of all the so-called "folk singers," Sainte-Marie was the most adventurous and fearless. No two of her wonderful albums were alike, but this one went the farthest out on a limb, mixing her trembling vocals with electronic backing, searing electric guitars and pulsating rhythms. "Poppies" is a spellbinding trip; Leonard Cohen's "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" is a mystic dazzler, beginning and ending with an ocellating loop of Buffy's voice repeating the title line; "Better To Find Out For Yourself" will give you the shivers, especially when she hits that final, angry wail on the fade out; "Suffer The Little Children" is more relevant now than ever. "He's a Keeper Of The Fire," a chanting rocker bristles with energy, and "The Vampire" should be the theme song for a really good horror movie. Ed Freeman's "The Angel," with its echoing bell sounds, is simply sublime, one of the most gorgeous songs Buffy has ever sung. ILLUMINATIONS is a dream-like, captivating record that was way ahead of its time, and still sounds daring today.

I have waited many years for the particular album to be reissued on CD. It has always been my favorite since I first bought it in 1971. It shows Miss St. Marie at her very best and the songs have a common spiritual theme and haunting melodies. Especially memorable is "The Dream Tree."

How Buffy Sainte-Marie came to make "Illuminations" remains one of the great mysteries of music history. Released at the tail end of 1969, the album sold so poorly and lost Vanguard so much money that they made her produce music that would be commercially viable (and succeeded only for the number 38 single "Mister Can't You See"). Sainte-Marie herself apparently disowned the recording because of the trouble it caused her and Vanguard in subsequent years, despite her continuing interest in its electronic sounds.

Though we do know "Illuminations" was recorded in several sessions including four songs with little-known folk/jazz musician Mark Roth producing instead of Maynard Solomon, where the idea behind the album and its highly conceptual theme of spiritual liberation came from is something nobody has ever found out, let alone revealed to the public. This aside, the music on "Illuminations" was entirely different from what Sainte-Marie had been doing on her first five albums, which had moved in a quite fashionable way from folk to orchestral pop and country. Although "Illuminations" is often thought of as an electronic album, in fact it is electro-acoustic, with Sainte-Marie chiefly using a primitive Buchla synthesiser to alter the sound of her own acoustic guitar and voice. This becomes immediately apparent on the first track, based on the Leonard Cohen poem "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot", where Sainte-Marie sings the whole poem rapidly in a tone far stranger than even her normal vibrato could produce. On "Better to Find Out For Yourself" (which had been released as a single before her previous album came out) she further exaggerates the trend of what might be described as speeded-up poetry recitals. Even if the lyrics are nothing like proper poetry, the effect is totally entrancing. "Suffer The Little Children", which looks at the mistreatment of children, is a folk song that would not have been out of place on her early albums.

Yet, despite these trends, "Illuminations" is generally a much quieter record than Sainte-Marie's earlier albums. "Mary" manages to tell Jesus' birth from the perspective of the Virgin in a manner that remarkably fits the concept line of the record and would not be out of place on a properly religious recording! What's more, "Mary" is a very short song that does not in any way seem incomplete like most piece of that length. "The Vampire" moves in the opposite direction from "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" and "Better to Find Out For Yourself" with is slow, dark tone and single-line verses, which is taken much further still on "Poppies" and Ed Freeman's "The Angel" where the acoustic guitar is blurred behind a cathedral-like silence and darkness.

The four Mark Roth-produced tracks, in contrast to the quiet electro-acoustic music of the rest of "Illuminations" are stripped-down, intense rock songs that are quite far from the spiritual concept of the first eight songs. Indeed, they have an intensity that rivals the Roches' amazing "Want Not Want Not", especially on the passionate love song "With You, Honey" and "He's A Keeper of the Fire".

All in all, "Illuminations" is a record of remarkable diversity and surprising originality that makes one wonder how Buffy Sainte-Marie was able to even cut it in the first place. Most listeners will find something to enjoy here, but those with an open ear should appreciate the whole album as a conceptual masterpiece.

This is one of those rare albums where most of what's on it stands up after years and years of listening, nice for an album recorded and released in 1969. Maybe it's because Buffy Sainte-Marie was and is one of those musicians who is just idiosynchratic enough to not fit comfortably into any particular niche and still be interesting. I haven't always enjoyed listening to her very heavy vibrato, but on ILLUMINATIONS it works beautifully with the sparse arrangements, the bizarre subject matter and the production chances she takes with all of the songs. "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" is a particular high point, where she mixes an excerpt from a Leonard Cohen novel with processed voice chants and intense recitation, and "The Vampire," "Mary," "Adam" and "Poppies" are similarly arresting. In fact, about the only song I found wanting was "Suffer The Little Children," a "protest" song, if you like, which when compared to some of her others in that vein sounds pretty dated now. Everything else is a very-near seamless whole that is often bewildering but ultimately fascinating. ILLUMINATIONS is, along with Judy Henske and Jerry Yester's FAREWELL ALDEBARAN, probably one of the most unique "folk" albums ever released in the Sixties. It's also quite good.

Ste Marie is remembered (if at all) as a folk singer or Indian activist. This is something else. Illuminations is a synthesis of the spiritual, acid (sic), activist, spirit of 1969. Leonard Cohen & Ritchie Havens & her own words but Rimbaud's inspiration AND she is truly in control of her voice (all the electronics are voice-based too). Very old fashioned in 2000 BUT it works in a way much 1990s stuff does not. A superb work of art.

This album was one of my favorites back in my teen years. I never thought it would get released on CD, but it finally was. Buffy is an aquired taste...you will either love her or hate her. The standout cut on this CD is without a doubt "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot". The rest of the songs grow on you with the passage of time. A great representation of the end of the 60's that carried forward to the early 70's. A great choice for your collection.

If you buy any Buffy album get this one. It is the most amazing album of folk, social activist songs. As a parent I find her songs and social , harshly honest, beautifully honest even in today's times. Often it is only through art that we can confront our demons honestly and emotionally to the effect that it can make us think at the least and make social change at best.
Go buffy! The electronic distortions of guitar and voice are powerful compliments to the most haunting and amazingly honest lyrics. There is no other Buffy album that combines musical accompaniment to her voice and lyrics to this most powerfully artistic effect. I totaly recommend this album. My second favorite is her country album. illuminations is a masterpiece for Buffy and her calaborators.