ANNA RUGIS
"RECONCILIATION - THE COMPANY OF SAINTS AND SAGES"
Ruby Heart Records
Anna Rugis is a brilliant composer and singer from New Zealand that has now settled in the United States. Her first album is this Reconciliation, whose themes have been individually inspired by a great deal of philosophers or what she calls "saints", with whom Rugis has had some sort of relationship, either personally or through their works. The result is a series of 15 songs eminently vocal in nature, lacking any instrumental artifice: If to Anna's beautiful voice we join a handful of sweet, crystaline melodies, we will get as a result a perfect introductory album that can be the launching pad for this singer. The devotion that Rugis feels for meditation, for the spiritual quest, clearly transpires in this CD. Although the songs have a melodic make of a very diverse nature, it maintains a vital coherence that leads the listener to think of wide, pure, natural spaces. Anna's husband, John Rugis, has been in charge of the technical production, yet she has composed, performed and sung an album that no doubt deserves an attentive listening.
M.M.
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