Tarja Turunen - My Winter Storm (2009) (Extended Edition)

2010-08-12T16:52:14Z

Tarja Turunen - My Winter Storm (2009)

CD1
1 Ite, Missa Est 
2 I Walk Alone 
3 Lost Northern Star 
4 Seeking For The Reign 
5 The Reign 
6 The Escape Of The Doll 
7 My Little Phoenix 
8 Boy And The Ghost 
9 Sing For Me 
10 Oasis 
11 Poison 
12 Our Great Divide 
13 Sunset 
14 Damned And Divine 
15 Die Alive 
16 "The Seer" (Deleted Scene - UK Bonus Track) 
17 Minor Heaven 
18 Ciaran's Well 
19 Calling Grace

CD2
1. "Enough" 
2. "The Seer" (feat. Doro Pesch) 
3. "Lost Northern Star" (Tägtgren Remix) 
4. "Wisdom of Wind" 
5. "The Reign" (Score Mix) 
6. "Die Alive" (Alternative Version) 
7. "Boy and the Ghost" (Izumix) 
8. "Calling Grace" (Full Version) 
9. "Lost Northern Star" (Ambience Sublow Mix) 
10. "Damned and Divine" (live in Kuusankoski) 
11. "You Would Have Loved This" (live in Kuusankoski) 
12. "Our Great Divide" (live in Kuusankoski) 
13. "Ciarán's Well" (live in Kuusankoski) 

Acoustic Guitar – Kiko Loureiro
Arranged By [Electronic Arrangements], Sound Designer [Ambient Music Design] – Mel Wesson
Arranged By [Orchestral And Choir Arrangements] – James Dooley 
Bass – Doug Wimbish
Cello, Cello [Electric] – Martin Tillman
Chorus – Czech Film Choir
Chorus Master [Choir] – Jan Brych
Conductor [Orchestra] – Jiří Kubík
Drums – Earl Harvin
Electric Guitar – Alex Scholpp 
Keyboards, Programmed By – Torsten Stenzel
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Tarja Turunen
Orchestra – Czech Film Orchestra
Piano – Izumi Kawakatsu
Violin – Lili Haydin

Here she comes, here she comes, we've been waiting for so long. Indeed, the ex-Nightwish wonderwoman Tarja Turunen is back striking the audiences with an enormously long album "My Winter Storm", filled with numerous bonus tracks and even an Alice Cooper cover "Poison". Tarja's solo project was spellbinding even during the days when she was still singing for Nightwish. After her departure both "Dark Passion Play" (by Nightwish) and "My Winter Storm" were among the most anticipated albums of the year. Nightwish's new album met enormous success. Tarja's solo project seems to be more modest. But we'll see what her album has to offer.

Tarja always stated she was an opera performer after all. Therefore it is visible that the style she's making now is somehow similar to Sarah Brightman. However, compared to the more experienced Brightman My Winter Storm cannot be considered a sensational masterpiece. The positive sides of the album do resemble Brightman. The beautiful choruses, the string ensemble melodies and the mild percussion make the music very enjoyable and create a perfect romantic atmosphere. Nevertheless, when it comes to producing symphonic metal, then the album loses some of its quality. There is not a drop of Nightwish style here. Tarja isn't obviously writing all of the music and has a crew of producers, managers and other people to do the job. Since so many people are working at the music then it's sad but true that the stitches joining the ideas start to unravel in some places. That always happens when it comes to industrial production of music. The minus of the album is that the metal background becomes monotonous by the end. A major danger while composing long releases.

However, Turunen has always been a good singer and she does a fine job on this album as well. We will definitely see her making more good music and developing her own fine style. My personal favourites among the songs of My Winter Storm would be "Die Alive", "The Reign", "My Little Phoenix" and "Lost Northern Star". The beautiful Finnish language ballad "Oasis" is also one of the best tracks of the album. Though I like Mozart's "Requiem" a lot I don't think that using bits of it in the two opening songs of the album would add much to it. Her "I'm never tired when it comes to praising myself" attitude isn't a plus either but at the same time Dark Passion Play features it as well and whether we want it or not this is an essential attitude for most celebrities.

As a result I'll make a nice clear conclusion. Tarja's My Winter Storm isn't exactly the best album of the year but it shows great potential and I'm sure that a grand future lies ahead of Tarja and she has the talent to create best music. I'll be waiting for her new releases in the future and why not hope for a Nightwish featuring Tarja Turunen project. The hopes are high and for the moment now My Winter Storm receives a magical 7.7. ---Ernis, metalstorm.net

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Tarja – From Spirits and Ghosts (Score For A Dark Christmas) (2017)

2017-12-11T14:28:08Z

Tarja – From Spirits and Ghosts (Score For A Dark Christmas) (2017)


1 	Come, O Come, Emmanuel 	
2 	Together 	
3 	We Three Kings 	
4 	Deck The Halls 	
5 	Pie Jesu 	
6 	Amazing Grace 	
7 	O Tannenbaum 	
8 	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 	
9 	God Rest Ye 	
10 	Feliz Navidad 	
11 	What Child Is This 	
12 	We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Cello – Peter Gregson
Keyboards, Piano – Jim Dooley, Tarja Turunen (tracks: 2)
Lead Vocals – Naomi (tracks: 4)
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Tarja Turunen
Orchestrated By, Choir – Jim Dooley

The album includes 11 Christmas classics and brings them to a never before seen level, uniquely blending Tarja“s classically trained voice with darker gothic influences. Utilizing the sound of a grand orchestra, the most successful Finnish solo artist puts a sinister spin on traditional songs like “O Tannenbaum”, “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad”, reminding the listener of a dark movie score. Besides covering classic carols, “from Spirits and Ghosts” also features a 12th track, the brand new original “Together”. This song is aligned with the dark sound of the album and embodies the theme of ghosts and mysticism throughout, in a brilliant, Tarja-styled manner.

Says Tarja: “Producing a dark Christmas album in the middle of the summer is a very interesting process, especially if you are doing it by the turquoise Caribbean Sea. Significantly different from the snowy Christmas that I am used to in my home country Finland. Another proof that the darkness comes from deep within. On this album, I explored the other side of Christmas. The Christmas of the lonely people and the missing ones. The Christmas for those that do not find joy in the blinking lights and the jingle bells. ” --- tarja-fromspiritsandghosts.com

While Finnish vocalist and songwriter Tarja Turunen is well known for wedding the operatic to symphonic metal, she forgoes the latter entirely on From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas). Recorded during the summer of 2017 in the Caribbean, mixed in Texas, and mastered in New York, the set includes 11 classic carols and other songs associated with the season as well as a new track recorded in the same manner. Turunen produced the collection with the American, Emmy Award-winning film score composer Jim Dooley -- who also handled arrangements -- and British producer Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, David Bowie, U2, the Cure, et. al).

Though Turunen's voice is characteristically crystalline, the gothic orchestral treatments of the traditional holiday material, beginning with downright spooky album-opener "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," are sometimes akin to the gloomy and monumental atmospheres created by Dead Can Dance. This feel saturates other tunes here such as the heartbreakingly lovely "Pie Jesu," the wildly dramatic "O Tannenbaum," and amazingly enough, the album's greatest surprise "Feliz Navidad." The melancholy in the relatively sparse charts on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" creates an even greater sense of intimacy, while closer "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is drenched in echo and electronics aside a celeste and chamber instruments, creating an eerie feel to send the album off. "Together," the lone new track, is a bittersweet seasonal song with Turunen fronting a full chorus, as triangles, swelling strings, and tympanis fill up the space behind and around her -- it's as lovely as it is sad. The outlier is the hymn "Amazing Grace," stitched together with pulsing synths, low-end brass, and reverb before the entire orchestra floods the foreground. Somehow Turunen's aesthetic principles shoehorns the tune to fit seamlessly into the mix. Given the absence of metal on Spirits and Ghosts, it will be interesting to see how it sits with her legions of fans. For the rest of us, however, this is a gorgeous left-field addition to the Christmas canon. ---Thom Jurek, AllMusic Review

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Tarja Turunen - My Winter Storm (2009) (Extended Edition)

Tarja – From Spirits and Ghosts (Score For A Dark Christmas) (2017)