A mix of pseudo-Latin chanting and modern dance music, vaguely similar to some early music by Enigma (only much peppier). A few songs include English lyrics.

Singing along to--or at least humming, since most of the words are conjectural. It's good for wanting to dance or be active, which in my opinion is the best kind of music (no chill-out ambient New Age stuff for me).

The "Ameno" remix, the "Mother" remix, and "Enae Volare Mezzo." Based on the samples I really didn't think I would like "Ameno," but it sounds a lot better when you hear the whole thing; the beat is just fantastic. The lyrics to "Mother" are kind of strange ("Mother, when I see that look in your eyes/I know that you're my only child"--say what??), but the tune is great; and you'd have to hear "Enae Volare Mezzo" to get why it's so good.

"Avemano" is rather middling; "Sempire D'Amor" is incredibly short (I believe it's the Latin intro to "Mother"); and "After Time" is completely skippable. (See Further Comments for more on "After Time.")

Listen to more music by Era (and I did--Volume 2!).

Upbeat, and like listening to it again. These are the kind of songs that get stuck in your head--for better or worse.

Is "Era," which I believe is just a stage name for a man named Eric Levi. I know nothing about him, but I believe he might be from France.

It's good, upbeat dance music (with a Latin-chanting twist) which hasn't been overexposed on radio, if at all. As I said, fans of early Enigma and of other music which employs chanting and dance beats should enjoy it especially. (Personally I like it MORE than Enigma.)

I wouldn't write a review if I didn't recommend it. ;)

I have to state right now that NEITHER version of the Era Volume 1 CD available at Amazon.com is the same copy that I myself own. My copy omits the original version of "Mother" (the remix is still included though), replacing it with "After Time," and the track order is different. I'm unsure why this particular version isn't listed anywhere on Amazon, so I chose the domestic version with music samples to showcase here. Truthfully, I believe I would prefer the version Amazon lists, as "After Time" is the only song on the CD without the Latin chanting and it suffers for it; it just doesn't seem to belong on this CD at all. I already mentioned that "Sempire D'Amor" seems to be just the Latin-chanting intro of "Mother," which led me to believe that it was the original version of that song (not included on my version of the CD), but apparently it isn't. This song lasts only about a minute, so isn't much of a song. One interesting tidbit I noticed only after listening to Volume 1 and Volume 2 a couple of times: The song known on this CD as "Mirror" is in fact a slow version, without English lyrics, of the song known on Volume 2 as "Misere Mani"--which is a GREAT song! But that's for my review of Volume 2. ^_^

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Era   from Amazon.Com!

Created Nov 18, 2006 at 8:11am • Submit your own review...