Enya

Enya is the eponymous debut studio album by the Irish singer, songwriter and musician Enya. Released in March 1987 by BBC Records in the United Kingdom, and by Atlantic Records in the United States, it is a selection of music comissioned for the soundtrack to the BBC television series The Celts: Rich Traditions and Ancient Myths which aired in 1987.

Following her work on the soundtrack for The Frog Prince) in 1984, Enya was invited by producer Tony McAuley to compose a single track for the BBC documentary series. Coincidentally, Enya had already recorded a demo of the track “March of the Celts” prior to being asked and thus submitted this to the project. Series director David Richardson loved the track so much that, instead of featured a different composer for each episode, he commissioned Enya to compose the entire score.

Working together with her now famous musical partners, arranger and producer Nicky Ryan and wife lyricist Roma Ryan, the album was recorded at the original Aigle Studios (then located in Artane) and at a sound studio at BBC Enterprises. The latter of which involved a period of time where Nicky had to teach the audio engineers how he and Enya’s unusual recording process worked. Encouraging them to “forget everything [they had] learned and to bear with [Nicky and Enya] for a least a week”, such practises included the setting of the reverb effect to 24 seconds as opposed to the common 1.5 seconds.

Of the total 72 minutes recorded for the series, the released album includes just over half with a running time of 39 minutes. Additional tracks such as “The Longships”, “Pax Deorum” and “Tempus Vernum” later surfaced as reworked versions across various albums. “The Spaghetti Western Theme”, however, remained in its original form when it was released as a b-side in 2005.

Upon the acquisition of the rights by Reprise Records, the album was re-released in 1992 as The Celts.