Customer Reviews

Sanctuary

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the latest offering from Magna Canta and all I can say is a big YES! The album 'Sanctuary' is the best yet from this new age medieval chant group. In this album they have increased their range with a more international feel with Russian chants in the song titled 'Russia' and lovely female Japanese chants in the simple song title 'Japan'.
But in this album release, Magna Canta in the tracks of 'Kyrie', 'Sanctum Christi' and 'Credo' went into a mini dance sound...mild techno rhythms that matched the gregorian latin chants. This is the best from Magna Canta to date and in my personal opinion it has leaped over Lesiem in originality and execution of all the blends of styles and beats. The song 'Lux Lucies' is a prime example, dance beats with harmonious gregorian chants.
This is now a favourite CD of mine and is in my top 20 CD list of most listened. Beautiful, wonderful and mind blowing. What else can I say!

A wonderful follow up album by Magna Canta. These guys are here to stay. All tracks are very nicely done, but there are some tracks that are outstanding:

1. Russia: This track has a terrific start. The first few seconds of this track can justify the purchase of the entire album. Terrific electronic cadence music with masterful gregorian chants. The arrangement is very well layered and textured. Wonderful.

2. Kyrie: This track seems like a perfect mix of 2 tracks that are masterfully merged into one another. You get hooked to one and the other one emerges quickly from behind and captures your attention.

3. Pater Noster: This is a very peaceful track. Almost like a beautiful selfless prayer with very uplifting electronic music. The chants will stir your soul and in an emotional moment draw a tear as well. I really liked the way the track just fades away.

4. The best track on the CD. The music slowly appears from the yonder. The mind conjures rhythmic floating images that swirl all around you and the chants feel like tufts of fresh air on your face.

6. Japan: Haunting start to the track. Very creative mix of Gregorian and Japanese chants.

7. Lux Lucies: Keeps getting better. A very well layered track that will take you on a tranquail sonic journey. Awesome.

8. In Excelsiss Deo: Stunning: Distant percussions that will give you goose bumps. This track blurs the track between electronic, Gregorian and techno music. Irresistible dance music.

The latest release from the Intent City Label is from a group named Magna Canta and the CD is entitled "Sanctuary" and it is a very good CD with a great blend of dance, New Age, and Gregorian Chants with infectious dance beats. The album cover is a great portrayer of the mood of this release. The first half of this album though is very strong with the first six tracks but then starts to wander off from there onwards until the very last song.

The album opens strong with "Russia" with it's beautiful mix of classical chorus, dance beats, as well as electronic groove rhythm. It is followed by one of my favorite songs entitled "Kyrie" which has a strong European dance vibe. "Sanctun Christie" is my favorite track on this album with it's R&B Hip-hop rhythm with New Age, electronic and Gregorian Voices that perfectly come together. "Credo" feels like something that perhaps Eurodance group Real McCoy would've done but it is a very good song but is a bit repetitive. "Japan" is a wonderful song however with a colorful, dark but cheerful melody. The album does start to coast towards the latter half of the album and most of the songs just seem to start strong yet just simply plateau less than halfway through them and almost all of them are only exactly four minutes long and not much longer. The end result is a great album that is mired by a sense of feeling unfinished or rushed due to the short running length and the plateau nature of some of the tracks. That plateau feeling however is ended with the strong closer entitled "Sequentia" which is a great and exotic track with a great arrangement and dramatic and closes the album on top.

Overall, this is yet a very good CD and definitely recommended but don't expect to be blown away by it but do expect a good listening experience especially during the early morning dawn hours in the summer or during a trip to Europe.

I loved Magna Canta's first release, Enchanted Spirits. I had very high hopes for this one, but the music as a whole seemed less memorable. The Gregorian chant dominates the music, which I love, but the dance beats that accompany it seem somewhat uninspired and mediocre. Nothing about the album seemed new to me. After the first listen, the songs already felt a little too familiar. I was hoping for at least one "awe-inspiring" piece, (such as the song "Fundamentum" by the similar group Lesiem)but I didn't find it. Still, a good release.

Not only was the shopping experience pleasant, but the music is AWESOME! Love the mix of New Age and Gregorian!

I purchased this album just for the tracks Russia and Japan. Simply because I liked the 30-second samples. Over all, its an ok album for me. If you like this kind of music genre than you might like it more than I did.

Gregorian Chants and techno beats put together to form a strange but pleasant mix. It's odd, but somehow works. Even though it's two separate tastes, it works surprisingly well together. The end result is an album that is both relaxing and moving (in a new-age sort of way). At times it was as mellow as I've heard on an elevator or in a dentist's office, playing side by side with Enya-----and then the beat and rhythm picks up and I found myself wanting to sway with the music and move my body and legs around. A very unexpected treat in music sound.

I love this music. I'm not good at describing music. But, it is calm, yet not all the time, it has a good beat. It's deep. Just buy it.

Magna Canta made a moody CD with Santuary. But playing it completely, it is very much of the same. Nevertheless, it is worth buying if you like this genre

Ranging in tone from darkly mysterious to moving and uplifting, "Sanctuary" is similar in style to Magna Canta's previous album, "Enchanted Spirits," but as seems to be the trend with most groups in this genre, has lost a little something in transition from one recording to the next. Although there is still vocal chanting in "Sanctuary," there seems to be less of it. Since there's no mention of a choir in the liner notes, nor of choral works being sampled, I'm not sure if Junior Deros and Ray Frederico are simply singing and perhaps overdubbing their own vocals or what. The voices are mostly male or falsetto-counter tenor in nature, and certainly hold their own with a deep, rich tone. But they're not as full or affecting as a real chorus of singers. That being said, the compositions are still engaging for the most part--energetic and well-crafted. They're varied enough in structure to make for interesting listening or dancing, although occasionally they become a little repetitive or derivative. Like Enigma before them, but not quite so exotically, Magna Canta branches out into a wider world of song in this album, incorporating Russian lyrics in track #1 and Japanese lyrics in track #5, penned by Ludmila Kloss and Marianne Shimisu respectively. In fact, track #1, appropriately enough called "Russia," is probably my favorite one on the album, with a simple, sober but affecting melody that sounds like it would make a great movie soundtrack theme. The last selection, Sequentia, is cool too, utilizing a polyphonic triple meter common in Latin chant but not usually heard in this genre. It is quite effective nonetheless, not to mention affecting. Drawing from a different aspect of sacred medieval music than unmetered monophonic chanting, such fusion would make for many other interesting compositions should anyone care to take up that torch (Hint, hint! Twenty-first century School of Notre Dame, anyone?) One suggestion for future releases: the phrase "Magna Canta" translates as "great songs." Great songs deserve great choirs to sing them. Bring back the chorus! If you enjoy listening to Magna Canta, try also the work of Lesiem, Era, Enigma and Amethystium, as well as "Vision" by Richard Souther and Hildegard von Bingen.