Illuminations, released in 1969, was the sixth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...

. Though most of the tracks did away with the backing she had used on her previous two albums, Illuminations had a completely different sound from anything she had previously done. From a basis of vocals and acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

, Sainte-Marie and producer Maynard Solomon used electronic synthesisers to create a sound that was much more experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 than folk. Indeed, Illuminations was the first quadrophonic vocal album ever made, and on songs like the album's only single "Better to Find Out Yourself", her voice is completely altered by a Buchla

Buchla

Buchla & Associates, Inc. is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, notably synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The 200e Electric Music Box and Lightning III are currently in production.-Buchla Music Box :...

 synthesiser.

Peter Schickele

Peter Schickele

Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...

, however, did provide arrangements to "Mary", "Adam" and "The Angel", whilst the four tracks "Suffer the Little Children", "With You, Honey", "Guess Who I Saw in Paris" and "He's A Keeper of the Fire" were her first work to be not produced by Vanguard boss Maynard Solomon. Instead, they had a stripped-down rock sound and were produced by little known folk-jazz songwriter Mark Roth.

Reception

On its initial release, Illuminations was an utter disaster commercially, failing to get anywhere near the Billboard Top 200 and being deleted and largely disowned by Sainte-Marie within a few years.

However, in more recent times Illuminations has acquired a fan base quite distinct from that associated with any of Sainte-Marie's other albums. In addition to being cited as a favourite album by a number of famous musicians - notably Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett

Stephen Richard Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career...

 of Genesis

Genesis (band)

Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...

, a number of critics have seen its twisted, eerie soundscapes as laying the grounds for the evolution of gothic music as well as having an influence on New Weird America

New Weird America

New Weird America describes a subgenre of psychedelic and indie music, often psych folk, of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.-Origin of the term:...

.

In 2000, just before Vanguard re-issued it on CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, Wire

The Wire (magazine)

The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...

magazine listed Illuminations amongst its 100 Albums that Set the World on Fire While No-One was Listening.

Track listing

All songs composed by Buffy Sainte-Marie unless otherwise indicated.

1. "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" (poem by Leonard Cohen
   Leonard Cohen
   Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
   
   /music by Buffy Sainte-Marie) - 4:51
2. "Mary" - 1:30
3. "Better to Find Out Yourself" - 2:12
4. "The Vampire" - 2:05
5. "Adam" (Richie Havens
   Richie Havens
   Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
   
   ) - 5:05
6. "The Dream Tree" - 2:34
7. "Suffer the Little Children" - 2:53
8. "The Angel" (Ed Freeman
   Ed Freeman
   Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman was a United States Army helicopter pilot who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War...
   
   ) - 3:41
9. "With You, Honey" - 1:48
10. "Guess Who I Saw in Paris" - 2:25
11. "He's a Keeper of the Fire" - 3:21
12. "Poppies" - 3:26