Music

My two great interests in life (family aside) have always been music and films. But a couple of weeks ago these came together in an unintentional, and therefore all the more pleasing way.

Making the most of Michele and the kids being away such that, for the first time in a long time, I could sit down and start to watch some of the many 3+ hour films that I own, I thought I would start with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'd seen them all before but never felt that I'd really 'got' the whole overwhelming feeling of just how epic these films are always described as being.

The films themselves are of course, really good, but it was as the credits rolled on the second film - The Two Towers - that I was struck by the beauty of the closing song.

Now, at the Oscars, it was the song that closed the third and final film - Into the West by Annie Lennox - that won awards and adulation, and which has since become known as the more famous song from this trilogy of films. The end of the first film also had a song by Enya - fitting for the general mood and theme of that film I felt.

But the Two Towers ends with "Gollum's Song", sung by Emiliana Torrini - an Icelandic singer of whom I had never previously heard. She sounds like a cross between Norah Jones and Bjork (the part of Bjork that isn't mad). And this song, simultaneously hymn-like and epic in scale, is one that straddles the fine line between sadness and beauty. But I love it. You can hear/see it here.

And then of course, being one who loves to immerse himself in new stuff that I've found that I like, and through the power of free downloading (I recommend www.mininova.org above i-tunes any day), I have now found and downloaded her first two mainstream albums, from 1999 and 2005 respectively, both of which are excellent and yet very different from each other.

The first is perhaps more accessible and contains songs like Easy, which is quickly becoming my new song of the moment. Also check out Wednesday's Child.

But if you think I've just been fooled by the very tight production on this album, then the second album is completely different - and yet very chilled. Someone once suggested I listen to the much awarded album 'O' by Damien Rice, but I couldn't get into it. However, Emiliana Torrini's second album is very similar I now realise, and made me immediately understand the appeal. Stripped down to little more than guitar and that very breathy voice with the slight Icelandic accent, I really do feel like I've accidentally stumbled across something magical.

And there's a new album out next month (which those lovely people at mininova have again enabled me to download already, and for free too!).

I'm hooked. Hope you are too.