Daniel Lanois - Bella Donna (2005)

“Belladonna” is a 2005 studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Daniel Lanois who, according to his website, took the techniques he developed with Brian Eno and went on to produce career albums for Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, and Emmylou Harris. This journey comes full circle on “Belladonna”, an instrumental record that captures the often tense emotional dynamics of Eno's pioneering releases. Dense textures evolve into delicate Mexican melodies, capturing the disquieting serenity of American southwest landscapes. This is Lanois' self-proclaimed defining moment. Inspired by a trip to Mexico, Belladonna sounds technically flawless-- every marimba strike and fret run has a specific texture that's almost miniaturist in its realistic detail-- but it's all in service to vocal-less songs that are ponderous and dull, whose strict adherence to an overriding motif hems them in.
“Belladonna” refers to the herb Atropa belladonna, or deadly nightshade, whose poison results in, among other symptoms, total loss of voice which makes it a particularly apt title for an album of instrumentals. The overall scheme is almost soundtrack-like in nature, or rather like a nature soundtrack. Rumbling feedback on opener "Two Worlds" suggests storms on the horizon, time-delay shots of clouds morphing rapidly past New Agey mood scenes conveying the passage of time or the amorality of an arid desert floor. The songs that follow take a similar tack, and song titles refer to south-of-the-border locales or fauna "Oaxaca", "Agave", "Desert Rose", "Todos Santos" giving specificity to the vague evocations of the music. For better or worse, such earthly signposts work to ground the music's spacey ambience. Lanois communicates this ethereality mostly through his pedal steel, which recalls Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, his 1983 collaboration with Eno. Lanois manages to coax some lovely textures and melodies out of the instrument, as on the florid notes of "Desert Rose" and "Carla", but typically it gets lost among the other elements, proving the least compelling element on the album. As a result, the songs often fold into one another, distinguishable only by inspired flourishes like the reggae rhythms of "Frozen", the Mariachi horns on "Agave" and Brad Mehldau's sparkling keyboard melodies on "Sketches". Lanois is aiming for a kind of ascetic aesthetic, with each song a sort of musical haiku: concise, disciplined, sublime. But on “Belladonna” less is not more, but merely much less. The album is so stuffy and self-serious that it practically demands your respect and admiration.
One track on the album, "The Deadly Nightshade", had earlier been released on a 1996 album by Geoffrey Oryema as "LPJ Christine", although the version on “Belladonna” is without Oryema's vocals.


01. "Two Worlds"  - 2:03
02. "Sketches"  - 4:24
03. "Oaxaca"  - 2:50
04. "Agave"  - 1:59
05. "Telco"  - 3:34
06. "Desert Rose"  - 1:52
07. "Carla"  - 2:02
08. "The Deadly Nightshade"  - 4:06
09. "Dusty"  - 1:39
10. "Frozen"  - 3:17
11. "Panorama"  - 3:01
12. "Flametop Green"  - 2:27
13. "Todos Santos"  - 5:32

Credits
Daniel Lanois - pedal steel guitar
Brad Mehldau - piano
Brian Blade - drums
Aaron Embry
Bill Dillon
Daryl Johnson
Gilbert Castellanos
Malcolm Burn,
Michael Desson
Victor Indrizzo
Producer - Daniel Lanois

Notes
Audio Mixer: Adam Samuels Mojo (Publisher)
Photographers: Margaret Marissen; Jennifer Tipoulow; Malcolm Burn.
Lacquer Cut By – RM
Lacquer Cut At – Capitol Studios
Pressed By – Rainbo Records
Genre - Ambient, Experimental
Duration Time - 36:46
© 2005 Anti, Inc. Records