Illuminations – BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE****

God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot/Mary/Better To Find Out For Yourself/The Vampire/Adam/The Dream Tree/Suffer The Little Children/The Angel/With You Honey/Guess Who I Saw In Paris/He’s A Keeper Of The Fire/Poppies

For her Illuminations album folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie introduced electronic synthesisers on the first quadraphonic album ever made. The resulting sound was different from anything she had previously recorded.

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

“This album made history as the first quadraphonic, electronic vocal and instrumental album. From the opening track to the end the listener gets a slice of psychedelic 1969 with technology well ahead of its time.”

“The best tracks have a surreal quality that sends shivers down the spine. My favourite song is The Angel with its 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 people’s works. Above all this album is experimental and years ahead of it's time. Turn on this album lay back and be transported by aural magic and that voice.”

“Buffy Sainte Marie's Illuminations has the great plus of sounding both of its time and, in a way, timeless. While the 60s roots are there, it certainly can't be easily slotted alongside most 60s folk albums, it's far too unusual for that. It's dark and sometimes disturbing, tinged with medieval vibes and then cross pollinated with slashes of electronica. The moments that impress the most are the sparsest ones, where the creepiness moves in and Buffy's ever quavering voice staggers along.”

“The dark, witchy dreamscape of this album, characterised by ominous incantation and tense chord patterns, is unparalleled. Sainte-Marie's vocals are entrancingly alien, with a dense vibrato that rolls like thunder between bouts of yodels, shrieks and sighs, and strange, glistening electronics move like shooting stars or looming satellites across the album's icy night sky. This is a true gem of '60s psychedelia.”