Finally, a new full-length studio album from this musician extraordinaire comes our way!

As with her earlier albums, McKennitt takes her inspiration from the Celtic peoples, fusing the melodic sensibility of Scottish and Irish balladry with musical traditions from Greece, Turkey, Spain and even Scandinavia.

The album, which was recorded at Real World Studios in England and features a host of internationally acclaimed musical guests and evocative instrumentation, takes the listener on a journey from the Scottish borders to the caravanserais of the Silk Road and the wine-dark seas of Homer's Odyssey.

Produced by Loreena McKennitt, An Ancient Muse continues McKennitt's exploration of Celtic themes on a journey that sweeps across eras and musical genres, from the British Isles to ancient Greece and Byzantine- and Ottoman-era Turkey. As McKennitt herself describes it, 'This record is a little like equipping yourself with a Eurail card. It's like saying, I don't know where I'm going to on this trip. I'm just going to get on board the train, and allow each encounter to lead to the next.'

The nine tracks take the listener on a timeless journey: a return home in The Gates Of Istanbul; the wonder of nomadic wandering in Caravanserai; star-crossed love and the Crusades in The English Ladye and the Knight based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott; and loss and longing in Penelope's Song, which takes as its subject Odysseus' wife, waiting and worrying while he was off having the adventures immortalized in Homer's Odyssey. Despite the wide array of instrumentation (including oud, lyra, Swedish keyed fiddle and viols da gamba), all the performances derive from similar inspiration: the sense of landscape McKennitt brings to all of her work: a visual set of images, organically connecting the piece to musician and instrument.

The recording is McKennitt's first new studio album since 1997's The Book of Secrets, a multi-platinum success worldwide.