''The Other Side of Time'' is the debut solo album from the American singer-songwriter

Mary Fahl Mary Fahl (born Mary Faldermeyer, July 1, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and actress known for her work with October Project in the mid-1990s. More recently she is known for her solo singing and acting career. She released an EP ''Lense ...

, released on May 27, 2003 by the newly formed Sony Odyssey label. The album reached No. 22 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Heatseekers Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...

chart and No. 269 on ''BillboardsTop Internet Albums.

History

After performing as a solo artist in the late 90s and releasing the EP ''Lenses of Contact'' in 2001, Fahl was signed with Sony Classical. Upon finding out Sony Classical would be releasing the soundtrack to the film '' Gods and Generals'', Fahl researched the story and wrote the song "Going Home" on speculation. Three of the songs from ''Lenses of Contact'' were featured in ''The Other Side of Time'', and two songs would figure prominently on film soundtracks. "Going Home" appeared in the opening of '' Gods and Generals''; the album's closing track, Fahl's version of the traditional Irish tune "The Dawning of the Day," was featured in ''

The Guys ''The Guys'' is a play by Anne Nelson about the aftereffects of the collapse of the World Trade Center. A film version of the play was released in 2002 and starred Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia. History In the play, Joan, an editor, he ...

'', along with several reprises of the song. ''The Other Side of Time'' showed some additional sides to Fahl's style, bringing in opera styles in " Una furtiva lagrima" and Middle Eastern influences in "Ben Aindi Habibi". These two tracks, which Fahl sang in Italian and Mozarabic respectively, were the first non-English language songs to appear on her records. "Ben Aindi Habibi" was a traditional

kharja A kharja or kharjah ( ar, خرجة tr. ''kharjah'' , meaning "final"; es, jarcha ; pt, carja ; also known as markaz), is the final refrain of a ''muwashshah'', a lyric genre of Al-Andalus (the Islamic Iberian Peninsula) written in Arabic or Mo ...

written in the 11th or 12th century. Fahl said in an interview that she had discovered "Ben Aindi Habibi" while on tour with the October Project and considered it her favorite song on ''The Other Side of Time''. In an interview with

Liane Hansen Liane Hansen (; born September 29, 1951,) is an American journalist and radio personality. She was the host of the National Public Radio (NPR) newsmagazine ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' from 1989 until her retirement in May 2011. Her experience in ...

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, Fahl stated that she performed these songs on ''The Other Side of Time'' because she was signed to a classical label and a pop label would not have let her make that type of record. "Paolo" was written in 1997, one of the first songs she'd composed, and is considered by Fahl to be the most autobiographical of her repertoire. "The Dawning of the Day" was written for the film adaptation of ''

'' in honor of the firefighters who died in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. The film's director, Jim Simpson, stipulated that the song sound like it was written 300 years ago. Fahl wrote the lyrics within the two-day deadline. Fahl admits to being moved to tears while writing the lyrics. Fahl wrote her lyrics to "The Dawning of the Day" to honor firefighters who died in the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. The song would later be performed by Ronan Tynan at the re-opening dedication for the

Seven World Trade Center 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC, WTC-7, or Tower 7) refers to two buildings that have existed at the same location within the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The original structure, part of the original World Trade Ce ...

in 2006.

Reception

Overall, ''The Other Side of Time'' met with mixed reviews. Film Score Monthly called her "a brasher, more exciting version of

Enya Enya Patricia Brennan (; ga, Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin; born 17 May 1961), known professionally by the mononym Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician known for modern Celtic music. She is the best-selling Irish solo arti ...

and

Sissel Sissel is a Norwegian female given name, a variant of Cecilia.Har du et helgen-navn ?

" and concluded, "Mary Fahl, thankfully, is not your typical pop singer. Somewhat unwieldy, but always interesting. More filmmakers should pay attention to the vocal talent on display in this CD." The All-Music Guide praised her past work with the October Project and her first solo EP but gave her only 2 out of 5 stars for ''The Other Side of Time'', saying, "She still has the big voice, but she's opting for an easier course of being eclectic by tossing faint nods at different styles while trying to hew firmly to the center of the road.... This just ends up being a bland waste of a mighty talent." After listening to the first four tracks of the album, MusicTap's Matt Rowe described himself as "mesmerized," comparing Fahl's "entrancing voice" to that of

Lisa Gerrard Lisa Germaine Gerrard (; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique ( ...

's of Dead Can Dance fame. He found the majority of the album rich with "philosophical lyrics" and "spiritual airing," calling Fahl a "unique talent" on a "quest for answers that emulate the basic need of man to know things usually beyond our understanding."

Track list

Personnel

Musicians and vocalists * Rob Mathes – piano, electric guitar, keyboards * Dennis McDermott – drums * Mark O'Connor – violin, soloist *

Shawn Pelton Shawn Pelton is an American drummer and percussionist. He has recorded with a wide range of artists and has been a first call player since moving to New York in the late 1980s. Shawn has recorded with artists such as Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, ...

– drums,

drum Loop In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...

* Larry Saltzman – electric guitar * Jimi Zhivago – electric guitar * James McCollum – guitar * Paul Intson – bass (upright) * Alan Hewitt (musician) – percussion, keyboards * Glenn Patscha – piano, background vocals, keyboards * Alvin Young – bass * Henry Aronson – piano * David Berger – drums * Byron Isaacs – bass, bowed bass, background vocals, guitar * Fiona McBain – background vocals * Pamelia Kurstin –

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

, soloist * Mary Fahl – vocals * Iki Levy – percussion, drum loop * Tony Garnier – bass * Kevin Kuhn – guitar *

John Lissauer John Lissauer is an American composer, producer, and performer. At the age of 19, he arranged the first recordings of Al Jarreau. Lissauer went on to produce and arrange a pair of Leonard Cohen albums. Lissauer produced and arranged the first r ...

– bass, guitar, conductor, keyboards,

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

dholak The ''dholak'' is a two-headed hand drum, a folk percussion instrument. The instrument is about 45 cm in length and 27 cm in breadth and is widely used in ''qawwali'', '' kirtan'', '' lavani'' and '' bhangra''. The drum has two differ ...

, shruti box, orchestral arrangements, talking drum, shaker, engineer,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, harmonium, percussion * Mark Egan – electric bass * Glenn Alexander – acoustic guitar, guitar * Ramsey McLean – guitar * Oren Bloedow – guitar * Richard Locker – cello, soloist, orchestra * Scott Healy – piano, keyboards * Paul Cremo – electric guitar, executive producer Production * Mychael Danna – arranger, producer * Ed Rak –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

David Tickle David Tickle (born 6 September 1959) is a British record producer and engineer. As a producer, he is noted for his work with Split Enz, and in Canada, for his mid-1980s work with Red Rider, Platinum Blonde and Gowan. He later produced Joe Cocke ...

– record producer,

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ing * David Wilkes – artist consultant * Brad Haehnel – engineer * Ron Searles – engineer * Jeffrey Lesser – mixing, engineer, producer, background vocals * Janush Kawa – photography * Nick Vaccaro – photography * Anthony Ruotolo – associate engineer * Keith Shortreed –

digital editing Digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital ...

* Jan Folkson – engineer, digital editing, metal shaker *

Ian Cuttler Ian Cuttler Sala (1971–2014) was a Mexican art director, photographer and graphic design artist. Biography Ian Cuttler was born in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1971. He lived with his brother Alex and two parents. His mother was crowned Miss Chile i ...

– art direction * Ricardo Fernandez – associate engineer * Robert Nowak – copyist * Robin Pitre – copyist * Dan Abernathy – associate engineer * Edmund Cionek –

copyist A copyist is a person that makes duplications of the same thing. The term is sometimes used for artists who make copies of other artists' paintings. However, the modern use of the term is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are emplo ...

* Ruth DeSarno – A&R assistance * Nic Hard – engineer * Erich Trusheim – associate engineer * Jeremy Welch – associate engineer * Joshua Benezra –

intern An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

* Anne Atalla – A&R Orchestra * Karen Milne * John Moses * Joe Passaro * Sue Pray * Jim Saporito * Laura Seaton * Kirk Worthington – cello * Dale Stuckenbruck * Maxine Roach * Sarah Adams * Rick Dolan * Richard Clark * Caryl Paisner * Belinda Whitney * Helen Campo * Ken Barward Hoy * Don McGeen * Xin Zhao * Adam Grabois * Laura Oatts * Stacy Shames * Larry Di Bello * David Earl Taylor * Shelly Holland-Moritz * Natalie Cenovia Cummins * Elizabeth Lim Dutton * Robert Bush * Leise Paer * John Miller – conductor * Mark Sherman * Martin Agee * Dennis Anderson * Randy Andos * Joseph Bongiorno * H. Robert Carlisle * Barry Finclair * Joyce Hammann * Karl Kawahara * Jeanne LeBlanc

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Other Side Of Time, The 2003 debut albums Mary Fahl albums