Daniel Lanois is originally a producer. His productions are characterized by a unique, warm and spacious sound, as can be heard on the albums he produced for U2 (The Joshua Tree, together with Brian Eno), Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel. After a relatively long silence, he has been releasing solo albums since 2003. Shine (2003) and Rockets (2004) were both classified in the ambient corner, but actually
… transcend that genre. This includes Belladonna, which Lanois recorded in Mexico with Brian Blade, Daryl Johnson and Malcolm Burn. The soundscape approach of Lanois provides a quiet album that could easily serve as a soundtrack. The pedal steel guitar plays a big role on Belladonna and sounds fantastic. You can at least imagine the languor of the hot Mexico. A perfect record to dream away with. (JdD)more
