EMPOWERMENT4WOMEN.org
In The Name Of The Mother The Daughter And The Holy Will (ITNOTMTDATHW) is Isabelle Pascale Granet's second studio release, following her 1999 solo debut Sanctity. This time, Granet has teamed up with Paul Hsu, who provides programming and instrumental work to accompany her already honed talent for vocal clarity and poetic communication.
ITNOTMTDATHW is a unique album in that the vocals are mostly spoken in a sort of meditative chant. The music follows along the same vein, which borrows primarily from a significant amount of programming and sampling to end up with a surprisingly cohesive, delicious mixture of erotic beats and ethnic musings.
Isabelle Pascale Granet is, in her heart, a poet—and you can hear it in every word she speaks on her album. And so ITNOTMTDATHW is not so much an individual music effort as it is Granet's outlet for communicating her poetry to a more widespread audience.
Granet has also self-published two books featuring her poetry and music lyrics, Words Like Stars and Her Lullaby For Her Soul, both of which have received significant praise from critics and feminist academics alike. But there's something about hearing her female empowered poetry spoken from her own voice, mixed with the most hypnotic of ambient beats, that makes the CDs more than worth the money.
There are several standout tracks on ITNOTMTDATHW, my favorite of which is the title track, in which Granet starts off singing passionately in French then switching to a Spanish-infused poetry reading—all backed by a driving electronica beat. "Resurrect Me" has perhaps the catchiest beat on the album, featuring samples from "Resurrexi-Domine Probasti Me" from the Resurrexi Gregorian Chant album. Track 12, "Madness," slows things down a bit with some gentle but catchy guitar riffs and a smooth blend of both singing and chanting. And "Prayer To The Virgin" is brilliant in its musical clarity, which perfectly matches the words she speaks. The song begins with a sexually-driven beat, then with the words: "even though I want you / I'm gonna make us wait." She then leaves the listener hanging, just as the lyrics suggest, while the music continues for a short bit on its own. The result is a musical mood intoned with anticipation and sexual excitement—simply wonderful.
To switch things up a bit, "Indigo" is nothing more than 4-year old Elodie Cadiot Granet speaking in French the words: "je veux que la nature soit comme elle est, je ne veux pas que la nature change" (translation: "I want nature to be as she is, I do not want nature to change")—a result that is incredibly powerful in its simplicity.
ITNOTMTDATHW is a highly intuitive album, intriguing in its international awareness. Granet herself is French-born and her lyrics are spoken in English, but her music communicates with such levels of a melting pot ethnicity that it somehow manages to speaks to all languages.
The entire album as a whole is amazingly listener-friendly, with song segways so smooth that it's almost like one long meditative song. It's an album you'll certainly want in your collection, to have on hand and play again and again. -- Carly Hope

AMAZON.COM
I just got this album the other day, on the recommendation of a review I read in a magazine (a publication whose opinion I generally trust). But you can never be sure until you hear the disc (that's what Amazon marketplace is for!). Anyway, I was not disappointed. This is a SUPERB album. This is an album created by artists who are tapped into a level of awareness that is simply not prevalent in the mainstream music business, and certainly not the general public. I won't go into the typical describe-the-tracks-musically sort of review. Let it be said that the music is EXCELLENT, practically without flaw in my opinion. BUT, I recommend taking this album as an education, as medicine. This is an aural experience which will elevate your being. It's art that requires the listener to slow down, put the hustle bustle of the outside world into soft focus and really EXPERIENCE. - - Eliza, San Francisco

Last week, I received an email from Liquid Light Records asking if I would be interested in receiving a free copy of Sanctity's "In the Name of the Mother the Daughter and the Holy Will". I got this email because I was put on producer/composer Paul Hsu's F&F list here on amazon. Being that it was free and that I liked the description of female vocals over electronic beats ala Enigma and Delerium (not in those exact words), I couldn't resist and responded to the email. That was last week. Today I just received my free copy of the new Sanctity album and I am currently listening to the music. I must admit that I was expecting some cheap packaging from a small, independent label like Liquid Light. Thank heavens they proved me wrong and put the cd in a nice, very professional-looking digipack cd package. Obviously a lot of care went into the cd packaging which shows that the artist really cares about the music and presenting to the consumer the best product he or she has to offer. The music itself is an enchanting blend of new age, ambient, and pop music. The female vocals are provided by Isabelle Pascale Granet. The production is excellent. Very big sounding and raw. Listening to Sanctity reminds me of Enigma's first two albums and a little bit of Delerium's 'Karma". Very sensuous and soothing to listen to. The music took my breathe away to say the very least. "In the Name of the Mother..." is a sumptuous delight for the ears. All the songs moved me but I was especially moved by "The Ghost of You", a gorgeous piano ballad. No words can express my delight of having to receive this hidden gem of a cd. I must say thanks to Paul Hsu and Liquid Light Records. You have made a lifelong fan out of me. If anyone has the opportunity to receive this cd, I strongly suggest in taking up the offer. You won't regret it. I know I don't. - - Erica Anderson, Minneapolis
 
I just received an advance copy of this CD from a friend who is a music reviewer. She's always kind enough to pass on to me the stuff that she thinks I'll appreciate. Wow, was she right this time!!!! Quite frankly, I find this disc a bit hard to describe. The label is calling it "ambient word", which I found a little hard to juxtapose with my listening experience at first, but now I think I get what they mean. It's mostly ambient, chillout, lounge type tracks with this incredible ethereal voice speaking. There's some singing - various voices, some are Eastern-sounding, a couple Gregorian Chants, and some modern female voice. The best word to describe it is really - Musical!! That may sound trite, but it's really true. The CD just put me in a state! I found myself daydreaming, forgetting the little stresses of the moment.....okay, so I'm starting to sound like an infomercial. The tracks have quite a bit of variety between them while still mantaining continuity. Some are instrumental, beat-less interludes. Most are similar to Vanessa Daou, Moby, or Massive Attack. The track "Resurrect Me" reminds me very much of Enigma. For those of you who are Enigma fans, this group may pick up the torch where I personally feel Cretu left off. Other tracks of note are "Lines" and "The Revolution is Being Meditated". These have a certain avante-garde vibe to them, but they still manage to be very melodic and listenable. I found them to be trance-enducing. Again, I find the disc hard to pin down.....and totally irresistable. This is a rare treat - but hopefully a harbinger of what's to come......real quality music with deep meaning and a soul in the midst of big record label b.s. - - Joel, Los Angeles

COLLECTED SOUNDS
This CD came with a little vial of incense and clumsy me pulled it off the case and spilled it all over my living room floor. As I scooped it up quickly so the dogs didn't get it, I got a whiff…mmmm…nice stuff. So I lit one of the broken pieces and put on the CD and closed my eyes. Melting….melting…. Sanctity's music is in the same vein as Delerium and Enigma. It is peaceful, serene, sexy and hauntingly beautiful. Every once in awhile a lyric might pull you out of the dream state as in "Art of Love when the singer (Isabelle Pascale Granet) purrs, "I'm not talking about f*cking…I'm not talking about coming…" but it's a very sexy song.
This is a very nice CD, well produced and performed and will be an accent to any moment alone or with someone *wink wink* yes, yes, would be good background music for that as well. Stand out songs "Prayer to the Virgin", "The Ghost of You" and "Resurrect Me" which is sung partially in French.

LOGO MAGAZINE.com
It’s rare indeed that an album labelled ‘ambient’ also bears a parental advisory sticker, though this is less to do with the occasional f-word than the erotic, explicit imagery that drips from Isabelle Pascale Granet’s sultry lips. “Between my legs I have a mouth that never fails to speak her truth” she breathes, interlacing the English with languorous French that could be a recital of a phone book; it doesn’t matter, the effect is overwhelmingly stirring. The basic template will be familiar to anyone who has suffered through an Enigma album: half-speed beats, breathless vocals and lightly appliquéd melodies; the focus here though is on the spoken word, for Granet doesn’t sing. Instead the effect is of an exotic lover whispering in your ear, saved from gimmickry by the sheer power of the emotions summoned. That, surely, is the point of all music; the emotions invoked here are as subversive and primal as those raised by garage rock, except these go a lot deeper, and may inspire you to real action. -- Fela Lewis

SHEDIVINE.com
The music: ambient and electronic music in equal proportions. A mixture of sensuality in the French accent of Isabelle Pascalle and the downtempo beats, and ethereal spirituality in ambient sounds and the world music or the beauty of the piano in the last tracks. But do not get wrong about her spirituality, in spite of track titles like "Prayer to the Virgin" or "Resurrect Me", this music is about the sanctity... of sex... They call their music "ambient word"; something like music to the spoken words of Isabelle, although she also sings -and very well- in some of the last tracks. Atmospheres, exotic melodies and a suggestive, modern and dense electronic body. A final conclusion: the concept is very interesting, that sweet blasphemy and ecstasy between Gregorian chants; the meditation made pleasure; ambient and other electronica as one only thing... and some tracks are really great, but maybe the same elements are used in too many of these tracks and even not becoming boring or bad anytime, it turns a little linear and monotonous and at times it falls into some dangerous commercial topics of the fusion of world/ethnic/choral arrangements and electronic music... These same ideas with a little more variety and without some clichés could be something tremendous... -- Héctor Noble Fernández

SMOTHER.NET (EDITOR'S PICK)
I think they might have just finished up “The Da Vinci Code” and concentrated on writing an album to celebrate the sacred feminine. Concept or not one could easily find some Enigma influences potentially but in a more downtempo fashion. Easily atmospheric and eerily quiet at times almost brooding in a dark corner. Attached with the CD was some incense with the encouragement to listen to the album with it burning. Sorry I’m not much for incense but I needed no extracurricular activity going on to thoroughly enjoy the album. Downtempo ambient with female vocals and meshed world music influences will get me every time. -- J-Sin

GETUNDERGROUND.COM (FEATURED SELECTION)
Bass-lines and moody melodies reverberate from beneath the floorboards. Haunting female vocals seduce you through their sexy psychedelic chants.  Epic atmospheric soundscapes lure you into feeling the sounds…not just hearing them.  Find Sanctity - In The Name Of The Mother The Daughter And The Holy Will.

Reviews of 1999 release (Sanctity by Isabelle Pascale Granet)

AQUARIUS, A Sign of the Times
Isabelle Pascale Granet uses poetry and chanted lyrics to maximum effect on her album, Sanctity. A native of Paris, she delivers a passionate, spellbinding performance in both English and French accompanied by a World Beat/Ambient/Trance arrangement of drums, keyboards, samples, synths, percussion, bass, guitars, and flute that provide the canvas she paints her vivid, sensuous images on. Razor sharp insights into relationship dynamics keep the listener constantly alert with flashes of recognition......the intensity and compactness of her performance is so torrid that you can just set your sound system for replay and enjoy listening to it twice just to savor the lines.

AMAZON.COM
Madonna's Ray of Light spliced with Deepak Chopra's celebrity-studded Gift of Love disc is perhaps the commercial counterpart to Isabelle Pascale Granet's intriguingly erotic Sanctity. High-minded, deep-bodied, and soul-searching, spoken word flows forth in both English and French, combining with sensuously syncopated dance beats, lyrical chant, and Granet partner Ben Arrindell's ambient-jazz grooves. Granet's words are sultry and whispery, seducing the listener; proud and fiery, celebrating the sacredness of sex and spirit; and on "I Must Speak (Of What I'd Rather Not)," her delivery is steeped in a river of sobs, as healing comes by giving voice to her wounded womanhood. Sanctity is darkly delicious, desirous, and dangerous to the powers who'd keep our passion under wraps. Be unafraid, Granet seems to say, explore the sanctity of your own vitality. -- Paige La Grone

MAGICAL BLEND
Isabelle Pascale Granet was born in a suburb of Paris, where she studied music and dance through her teenage years. At age twenty, she moved to the United States to pursue her artistic studies. She moved to New York City in 1990 and began writing poetry and songs while studying music history and composition, which prompted her performances at various poetry clubs.
In 1992, while working at a recording studio, the eclectic performance artist met sound engineer and soul mate Ben Arrindell, a native New Yorker. Together, with the release of their new album, Sanctity, they have successfully combined Isabelle’s sensual yet powerful poetry with music, weaving a diverse tapestry of spoken words and infectious urban rhythms. This music was like Sade meets Enigma and I found Isabelle’s voice soothing. The last track, the outro for “Her Lullaby for Your Soul” was absolutely intoxicating. My only complaint was that the CD was too short. --- Kaera Anzalone

METAPHYSICAL REVIEWS
This reviewer was spellbound by the sensuality, poetry and the beat found in Sanctity by Isabelle Pascale Granet. Indeed, I needed to sit down, so overwhelmed was I by this tribute to sexuality and feminity.Some of the music and lyrics go back to the 12th and 13th centuries... while all the poetry spoken on the tracks was written by Ms. Granet recently. All of them, though, are haunting and captivating. While French-born artist and dancer Isabelle Granet probably expresses her sensuality from her birthplace, her power and emotion undoubtedly emanate from her soul. The eight tracks of Sanctity are filled with passion only amplified by the marvelous electronic and acoustic sounds that serve to induce a meditative state.
Sanctity is special. It is a blending of old world and new world urban beats. Sanctity is, all at once, ambient and grounding, but it is also intriguing and awakening. And so, Sanctity is a peek into the heart of Isabelle Pascale Granet, a rare and beautiful place to visit! --- Richard Fuller, Senior Editor