Yanni - Voices

As most know who have followed Yanni over the years will recall, his early works were keyboards only recorded in his home studio (except for drums performed by Charlie Adams). He created some wonderful music with those keyboards. Gradually Yanni began adding other instruments besides keyboards and eventually progressed to a full orchestra. As with all great composers it is only natural that they compose for voice or their works have lyrics added by others and "Voices" is the perfect evolutional process
With "Voices" Yanni is sure to lose some old fans wanting to hear the instrumental Yanni they admire, but; at the same time he will win a large number of new fans who prefer lyrics to instrumentals. Beethoven said "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life" and I believe music is The Voice! All music comes from the creator's inner voice which means it must be sung on some level. The voice is the oldest and most versatile and passionate musical instrument known to man.
"Ethnicity" gave us a preview of what can happen when a Yanni song is set to lyrics. "The Promise" from "Ethnicity" was originally the song "Secret Vows" from the "Out of Silence "CD. Both the instrumental and vocal versions are great but personally I feel the lyric version is more passionate and the vocal really brings out the gospel flavor of the melody.
There are two versions of "Voices", the English version and "Voces" the Latin version. "Voces" features famous Latin vocalist and they lyrics are all in Spanish and Italian. "Voices" is mostly English with a little less than half of the selections in Spanish and Italian. This makes "Voices/Voces" an immediate international sensation on the level of Josh Groban and phenomenal producer David Foster. I purchased both versions because they are very different products. Yanni being the romantic that he is it is no surprise that Spanish and Italian are used in the lyrics and those are two extremely romantic languages.
You can preview some full length songs and see videos at Yanni's official website. Watching the videos gave me goose bumps because the singers are so powerful and passionate sparing nothing in their performance. Of the songs that you can preview I can tell that there are going to be many tracks that my wife and I will be dancing to at our Saturday night ballroom dance parties. "Kill me with Your Love" is a great danceable bolero that that will be a sure file hit. I hate to compare Yanni to Delirium but with a little electronic ambience this track would fit right into that sound.
Yanni's earlier compositions and were probably not written with the goal of being specifically Latin rhythmically they do work quite well. "Desire" has a samba flavor. "The Keeper" is a nice slow rumba again with that Delirium feel. "Vivire Por Ti" also a nice rumba. "Nican" sounds like something from "Ethnicity" with the childrens choir and chanting; this is a great track that conjures up some ancient spirit. "Unico Amore/Enchantment" is a Yanni classic set to Italian lyrics translated to "only love." "Nei Tuoi Occhi/In the Mirror" (in Italian meaning "in your eyes") is an awesome duet with Chloe and Nathan Pacheco. "Amare di Nuovo/Adagio in C Minor" in Italian means "to love of new."
There are some new songs on "Voices" that help the collection out by giving your ears a break for the reinterpreted songs and your mind trying to decide which you like better, the original or the lyric version. "Voices" is adult alternative music at its best and if you keep an open mind, you are going to love it.