Secret Garden’s new age bounty

Secret Garden, a new age musical duo, will hold a concert in Seoul tomorrow to promote its new album “Earthsongs.” Concerts in Seongnam and Busan are scheduled for next week.
It took three years for the instrumental group to release its fifth album. This is partly because the core members, Rolf Lovland, 47, a composer and keyboardist from Norway, and Fionnuala Sherry, 39, a violinist from Ireland, invited various guest musicians to participate. One track, “Lotus,” even features a Chinese traditional string instrument called the erhu, that evokes ancient times. The latest album was cut in Norway and Ireland.
Some of Secret Garden’s music plays to Korean melancholiness and sadness, which is probably why the group is popular here. Some pieces were featured in local soap operas and TV commercials.
Unlike previous albums, “Earthsongs” has more vocal tracks. “Sleepsong” features Saoirse, who usually plays the Irish harp. She studied singing at the College of Music in Dublin and was a founding member of the Irish choral group Anuna.
Many of the tracks in “Earthsongs” are quiet and heavenly, such as “Always There,” a sacred song, but there are also rhythmical uptempo numbers like “The Reel” and “Daughters of Erin.”
Mr. Lovland and Ms. Sherry met at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and were musically attracted to each other. They won the first prize at the same contest the following year ― the first time an instrumental group won in the contest’s history. Mr. Lovland had earned a Norwegian Grammy Award and is a popular songwriter in that nation, while Ms. Sherry, who has played the violin since she was eight, toured with the RTE Concert Orchestra for 10 years.
Secret Garden has visited Korea annually since 1999, and again will bring six musicians playing uilleann pipes, bass guitar, guitars, harp, drums and keyboards.
Secret Garden will play 23 pieces of music, seven of which are from “Earthsongs,” including “Fields of Fortune” and “Sometimes When it Rains.” The repertoire also includes “Songs from a Secret Garden” and “Hymm to Hope.”

by Park Sung-ha

Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. at Seongnam Arts Center, and Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Busan BEXCO. Ticket are 30,000 won ($29) to 90,000 won. For more information, call (02) 599-5743, or visit www.vincero.co.kr.