Artists

Enya – keyboards, synthesizers
Chris Hughes – rototoms

Written by Enya. Arranged by Enya & Nicky Ryan, produced by Nicky Ryan, co-produced by Enya & Ross Cullum, engineered and mixed by Ross Cullum, with Rob Dickins as executive producer. Recorded at Aigle Studio (Killiney, County Dublin). The ninth track (about 3:10) on Watermark (WEA, 19 September 1988).

An instrumental named by Nicky Ryan after the image of a river it conjured in his mind; he knew Enya had the final say on titles, but she liked the suggestion and kept it. Ryan has also described how Enya plays chords over five MIDI-linked synths driven by random arpeggiators, with notes popping in and out unpredictably, and somehow makes it work. Chris Hughes adds rototoms to the track, one of the few parts on the album played by a guest.

Enya – River Lyrics

Our words go beyond the moon.
Our words go into the shadows.
The river sings the endlessness.
We write of our journey through night.
We write in our aloneness.
We want to know the shape of eternity.

Who knows the way it is?
Who knows what time will not tell us?

Mountains, solitude and the moon
Until the journey’s end?
The river holds the lost road of the sky;
The shape of eternity?

Who knows the way it is?
Who knows what time will not tell us?

Where is the beginning?
Where is the end?
Why did we fall into days?
Why are we calling out into the endlessness?

Who knows the way it is?
Who knows what time will not tell us?

To listen to other songs from the the Teleskop 24 program click here.