CaraNua: Voices of Evermore

If you've been following Alex on social media, you probably already know about Evermore Park.

It's a new park in Utah. It's designed as an old European village, mixing authentic relics with a lot of fantasy elements. I've been keeping on eye on it during its development and it looks pretty cool. It's described as a "fully immersive, live-action, theatrical experience; performed on what is being touted as the 'world’s largest stage.' It sounds to me like the guest experience is a mix between a theme park and live role-playing, where there's a story going on and the guests participate in it. Kind of like the show "Westworld," though probably less graphic.

They made attention to detail a point of emphasis and their makeup / costumes look amazing! They're planning seasonal events, starting with Lore: "this haunted experience comes from Celtic Lore and explores the battle with darkness."

If you're like me and are planning to go see CaraNua pretty much no matter what, you may want to give Evermore a look, especially if you're into fantasy. CaraNua's only show in the US so far was in Utah and it's a good bet that if they do more shows, at least some of them will be in that general area.

Even if you're not into fantasy, it's clearly important to Alex, so that alone should make it worthy of consideration.

The official opening is Saturday, September 29, 2018.

Here's their web site for you to explore!
https://www.evermore.com/

This sounds really cool!

it's clearly important to Alex...

The official opening is Saturday, September 29, 2018.

OMG!!!!! It makes so much sense now!

Mind ... equals ... BLOWN!!!!!!

CaraNua just relaunched their website and my mind is completely blown!!!!!

https://www.caranuamusic.com/

CaraNua are officially the Voices of Evermore!




The cloaks, the reveal date, the trips to Utah ... it all makes so much sense now!

Here are their social media posts from today:

Facebook

Instagram

Without further ado, after the blood has been spilled, the tears have been shed, the fires have raged, powers uncaged, the bells have tolled and the drums have rolled.. we greatly extol as the magic unfolds!

We are so proud to lend our vocals and songs to Evermore Park, Celtic Lore.

Thanks to Ken and Josh for the dream come true and here’s to Chuck E Myers the wizard himself for conjuring all this magic and manifesting our musical team to create this masterpiece of composition and collaboration. It has been an honour to be a part of this visionary project from it’s conceptual stage to the epic journey it is now, we hope you all get to enjoy the magical experience!!

Take a look at their new website! Each of our CaraNua ladies is an elemental goddess!

They have samples of their music for Evermore too and it sounds awesome!


Alex is the Goddess of Air, which makes sense because her amazing voice takes my breath away.




Lynn is the Goddess of Water, which is appropriate because her beautiful voice can draw tears from my eyes in an instant.




Lisa is the Goddess of Fire. I need to hear more of her voice, but I get the feeling that listening to her is going to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.




The nerd in me is going CRAZY right now!!!!

Want to hear something really creepy? I was taking a little nap and I sprung out of bed literally the same minute they changed their profile picture knowing they had just relaunched their site. I hadn't even gotten a notification on my phone yet. What?

Just in case you weren't excited out of your mind yet, here's an AMAZING article on Evermore Park:

https://www.heraldextra.com/entertainment/things-to-know-about-the-magic-of-evermore-park-in/collection_747d0b7c-7b2b-5f52-ac97-27538c6ad24c.html#1

This is so cool! I'd really like to go to this at some point. I really like the little song clips they have on their website and that goddess picture is epic!

This is so cool! I'd really like to go to this at some point. I really like the little song clips they have on their website and that goddess picture is epic!

I'm almost positive they'll do at least 1 concert in Utah for the Evermore soundtrack, likely within the next few months. If they end up doing a tour (I'm ~80% sure they will, in some capacity) and there's no other show close to me, I'll probably just go to Utah to see them. If I'm going to have to fly to see them, I might as well go experience Evermore at the same time. Live interactive fantasy adventures aren't exactly in my comfort zone, but how can I not go now knowing how involved our lovely ladies have been since the beginning.

And yes, that goddess picture is incredibly epic!

Here's the "Evermore Adventure Park (Theme Song Suite)"

This particular one doesn't feature CaraNua, but it does sound pretty cool:
https://soundcloud.com/user-378965083/evermore-adventure-park-theme-song-suite

Yeeeessssss! I recall there being a post on instagram not too long ago from the jeweler that made the headpieces where they said those headpieces were for the upcoming US tour. I was thinking that would be today's announcement, but hopefully we'll find out soon!

I love that this park is only a 6 hour drive away from me!  I was excited to go check it out before I knew Caranua would be doing the soundtrack.  I'll probably go see the Celtic Woman Christmas concert in Salt Lake City on December 18, so maybe I'll make it be a 2 day vacation and check out Evermore the day before or after.  And I'd be very interested if they do an actual live concert there.

Lynn says 6 of their compilations will feature on the Evermore Park soundtrack to be released soon:

https://twitter.com/lynnhilary/status/1046329397551276032

Our group CaraNua are the voices you will here at the groundbreaking Evermore Park, 6 of our compositions will feature on the soundtrack released soon! The Goddess of Water looks a little like me @EvermorePark @CaraNua_music #evermorepark

I was hoping for a bit higher number, but any chance to hear them sing is excellent. The rest of the soundtrack sounds like it's going to be really cool too, so that's a bonus.

We can see on CaraNua's site there are at least 2 albums:
- Volume 1: The Soundtrack of Magical Lore
- Volume 2: The Soundtrack of Cursed Lore

The article below explains the difference between the Magical Lore and Cursed Lore experiences:

https://www.heraldextra.com/entertainment/things-to-know-about-the-magic-of-evermore-park-in/collection_747d0b7c-7b2b-5f52-ac97-27538c6ad24c.html#7

“Magical World of LORE” which is an earlier show that leads into our festival environment, which is age appropriate for kids, young adults, or anyone who doesn’t like haunted or scary type adventures.”

That’s just the early show, though. For those who are more a fan of spine-tingling fun or fearful adventure, there’s “The Cursed World of LORE.”

“It’s a creepy adventure for Halloween,” Bretschneider said. “It’s more age appropriate to teenagers and adults, and is a macabre-style haunted adventure, though not like lot of haunts that typically pop up in Utah – it’s a full theatrical production. We don’t just do ‘boo scares’ and ‘pop-up scares’ – there’s character interaction in the environment and visual effects.”

Both albums are just released on Itunes.

I listened to both albums (Vol 1 on Spotify and Vol 2 on YouTube).

As is typical of a soundtrack, some of the songs, particularly the atmospheric ones, are best appreciated in the context of the scene for which they were intended (ie. when listened to at the park). Some of the songs, listened to in the contextual vacuum of an album, may require some effort to properly enjoy them.

As one would expect, Magical Lore is mostly light, upbeat songs, while Cursed Lore has more tension-filled creepy songs.

I did find the Magical Lore album more enjoyable to listen to. Cursed Lore has a couple of really good songs, but is otherwise more atmospheric sounds than easy-listening music. The Magical Lore album on the other hand has quite a few fun ones.


Highlights from Soundtrack of Magical Lore (Vol 1)

Songs featuring CaraNua (as far as I know, by listening):
- Evermore
- Angels of Evermore
- Magic Enfolds
- The Lore of Glynshire
- Realm of Faerie Magic (they might be doing background vocals, but I'm not sure)

Evermore
- Starts instrumental for 50 seconds, then CaraNua enters the song
- Nice
- Not the catchiest song, but should work well when heard in the context of the park

Angels of Evermore
- Angelic humming

Magic Enfolds
- Reminded me of the sound of Saturn Return

The Lore of Glynshire
- Jig
- CaraNua might be doing background vocals at points in the song
- Then they're definitely singing at ~8:40

Realm of Faerie Magic
- Caranua *might* be doing background vocals at points in the song
- A nice song led by the whistle
- Reminiscent of the Hobbit Theme from Lord of the Rings

Winds of Evermore
- Relaxing

Towne Square Jig I, II, II
- Light jig with some percussion
- Each jig in the sequence is progressively more fun, III being my favourite

Dark Light Jig
- A fun major-key song, with some more ominous portions written in a minor key



Highlights from Soundtrack of Cursed Lore (Vol 2)

Songs featuring CaraNua (as far as I know, by listening):
- Sirens of Evermore
- Banshee Lullaby (I *think* they're in this song)
- Daughters of Danu
- 900 Years

The Fate of the Maiden
- A good, sad song, arranged in a classical style, driven by the strings section and supported by a choir

The Last Breath
- Tension-filled, creepy
- Terrifying swells

Sirens of Evermore
- Creepy

Banshee Lullaby (feat. Nicole Pinnell)
- I think CaraNua's in this song
- Either that or Nicole Pinnell has a similar-sounding voice

Daughters of Danu
- If that's Nicole Pinnell singing, she sounds a LOT like Alex Sharpe
- This one is good!
- One of my favourites from the 2 albums.


I asked CaraNua and Evermore Park if the albums are expected to release on physical CDs as well. We'll see what they say.

I haven't heard yet if the two Evermore Park soundtrack volumes are expected to be released as physical CDs yet.

The park founder liked my question, but nothing after that.

I'll follow up in a week or so.

I've been glancing at a few of the photos of people that have been to Evermore so far.

I think quite a few people are going in costumes (not everyone, of course).

I don't cosplay at all and wouldn't even be capable of making a costume that resembles anything cool. For crying out loud, I haven't even had a Halloween costume in about 15 years. I guess I'd either have to scramble together something really quickly (I'm guessing we won't get more than a few months notice before a CaraNua tour) or just be one of the un-cool people going in street clothes and awkwardly pretending to be part of the Evermore realm. Lol.