Relaxing Music Highlight: Earthsongs by Secret Garden
Let the relaxing music by Secret Garden take your breath away and dissolve your pains and sorrows
I recently came across a beautiful piece by Secret Garden which led me to this album that I’ll be introducing today. (Secret Garden is an Irish-Norwegian duo that plays Neo-classical music and should not be confused with The Secret Garden guided meditation I’ve featured previously.) The name of the music is called Lotus and it’s one of twelve pieces in the album Earthsongs.
Rather than trying to describe it with words, I’ll let you experience this mesmerizing and relaxing music yourself. Put on your headphones and enjoy the music video Lotus:
How do you feel after watching the video? Do you feel your anger, stress, anxiety or fear giving way to a deep sense of tranquility and melancholic compassion?
For me, the music seems to be able to open up my heart and awaken the compassion within. Whenever I listen to this piece, any unhappiness that I may be harboring will be dissolved by a sense of compassion that wells up automatically. The overwhelming emotion appears to remind me that the endless desires, insecurities and ignorance in us that perpetuate a vicious cycle of suffering can take a break now. Then obediently, my own cycle of suffering, which took me years of meditation to keep in check, stops by itself, albeit not for long, and a liberating peace sweeps over me.
Besides Lotus, I also enjoy a few other titles in the album, such as Sleep Song and Always There, which you can hear from the MP3 widget below.
About Secret Garden
Those who are familiar with Secret Garden will recall fondly their masterpiece, Nocturne, from the album Songs From A Secret Garden that catapulted them to international fame. This 1994 creation was extremely popular at one point and even today, it continues to be loved by many people from around the world. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the name of this title, it’s very likely that you’d have heard it somewhere before. Here’s the video for Nocturne, with Gunnhild Tvinnereim providing the soulful vocals:
Secret Garden is made up of two extremely gifted people — Norwegian composer Rolf Lovland who also plays the piano and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry (the man and the woman in white you see in the video above are Lovland and Sherry respectively). Other than the two albums highlighted here, they have also released several beautiful and relaxing music, including White Stones, Dawn of a New Century, Dreamcatcher (a compilation of selected pieces from the first three releases), Once in a Red Moon and the more recent one, Inside I’m Singing.
Some Interesting Facts about Secret Garden
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Do you know that the inspirational song You Raised Me Up was composed by Rolf Lovland? The lyrics were written by Brendan Graham. The song first appeared in Secret Garden’s 2002 album Once in a Red Moon with the vocals sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy.
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Nocturne won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995, the first and only time to date that a predominantly instrumental piece has won the prestigious pan-European TV extravaganza.
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The album, Songs from a Secret Garden sold a million copies around the world, going platinum in Norway and Korea, gold in Ireland, Hong Kong and New Zealand and stayed two years in the Billboard New Age charts.
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CDs by Secret Garden have been released in over eighty countries and more than four million albums have been sold to date.
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A special Secret Garden postage stamp was released by the Norwegian Postal Authority to recognize the duo’s Melody Grand Prix win in 1994.
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Secret Garden was commissioned to compose a symphonic piece for the Norway Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The music is part of a multimedia show that includes a 15-minute suite to accompany the spectator walk-through in the Norwegian Expo hall.
The official Secret Garden website is located at: http://www.secretgarden.no
Thanks for the Secret Garden! Lotus makes me melt. Thank you.
Great post. I love Secret Garden! Adagio is my favorite. I could listen to them for days.
Same here, I adore the music by Secret Garden too! They seem to have the magic of calming agitated mind instantly. Powerful and yet in a gentle and irresistible way.