Amarantine

Album version	3:09	English	2005
Single version	3:06	English	2005

Liner notes

The word Amarantine I have used in the song Flora’s secret. In that song the word was spelt a little differently. Then, it signified the colour purple and the eyes of a flower looking up to heavens.

In this song, Amarantine means "everlasting".

It is a song about love.
notes and illustration by Roma Ryan
Amarantine promotional box, 2005

Trivia

Enya said that ‘Amarantine’ is one of her favourite songs on the album.
The song premiered on October 10, 2005 on BBC 2 Terry Wogan’s show.

Mythology – The everlasting flower

Amaranth (from the Greek amarantos, unwithering) is a name used in poetry, and applies to Amaranth and other plants which, from not soon fading, typify immortality. In ancient Greece the amaranth was sacred to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon, hunt, and wild animals. It was supposed to have special healing properties, and as a symbol of immortality was used to decorate images of the gods.

A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden,
and the Amaranth said to her neighbour,
"How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent!
No wonder you are such a universal favourite."
But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice,
"Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time:
my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die.
But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut;
for they are everlasting."

Aesop’s Fables

Single

Amarantine was the first single from the album. It was released commercially with three different traclists:

<01 Amarantine [single version] +
02 The Comb of the Winds *
03 The Spaghetti Western Theme from The Celts *

01 Amarantine [album version]
02 Boadicea [single version] +
03 Orinoco Flow

01 Amarantine [single version] +
02 The Comb of the Winds *

+ new versions
* previously unreleased tracks

Music Video

Music video for ‘Amarantine’ was directed by Tim Royes who worked alongside well-known UK post-production and special effects company Rushes. The surreal forest through which Enya walks was created by digital matte painter Charles Darby (The Fifth Element, Titanic, The Matrix).

Charles Darby: "I am used to working primarily on feature films with the advantage of so much time, but with this project I found it quite liberating to work as fast as I had to. After seeing a cut of the video I made a list of questions for Tim [Royes, the director] and we went through each one so I had a solid feel for what he was after visually. I then prepared a concept, which I believed would work best and after some initial comments I created an oversized matte painting that was large enough to serve all the shots it featured in without appearing repetitive. Within 48 hours, we had a finished, multilayered painting that really helps extend the scale of the video."
4RFV UK, 2005

Rushes:
3D Artists: George Barbour, Lee Tibbets, Andy Hargreaves, Craig Travis, Nathan Walster
2D Artists: Marcus Wood, Brian Carbin, Leo Weston, Matt Jackson, Dave Kiddie
TK: Marcus Timpson and Adrian Seery
Producer: Josh King

Performances

Venue	Date	Details
Catherine & MAX Show (Netherlands)	Apr. 4, 2006	Lip-synced
Late Late Show (Ireland)	Mar 24, 2006	Lip-synced
The Saturday Early Show (USA)	Mar 11, 2006	Live
Live! With Regis and Kelly (USA)	Jan 26, 2006	Live
Verstehen Sie Spaß (Germany)	Jan 21, 2006	Lip-synced
Happy Xmas Show (Japan)	Dec 24, 2005	Lip-synced
Music Fair (Japan)	Dec, 2005	Lip-synced
Top of the Pops (UK)	Dec 4, 2005	Live

 

Lyrics

lyrics by Roma Ryan
EMI Music Publishing Ltd, 2005