The Enya album named after Sark's night sky

In 2015, the Irish musician Enya released her eighth studio album. She called it Dark Sky Island, and the name is Sark’s, not a metaphor she invented.

Where the idea came from

Enya had taken a roughly three year break from music after her 2008 album And Winter Came… At a meeting with her longtime collaborators, producer Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, Roma handed her a collection of poems she had written about islands. One was about Sark, and it came with the story behind it: in January 2011, Sark had become the world’s first Dark Sky Island, with no public street lighting anywhere on it. Enya has said that idea was what started her writing again.

The title track, “Dark Sky Island,” was the first song written for the record, and it names constellations. Enya has described the album’s underlying theme as journeys, “to the island; through the length of a lifetime; through history, through emotions,” though she is careful to say it is not a concept album built around Sark alone.

How it was received

Dark Sky Island entered the UK Albums Chart at number four, Enya’s highest position there since 1997, and reached number eight on the US Billboard 200. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Age Album. Reviewers were largely warm about it: the Evening Standard called it “magnificent in every sense,” the Irish Times found it “nourishing and immersive,” and Pitchfork likened listening to it to “being embraced by air,” ranking it Enya’s best record in twenty years.

The sky she was writing about

It’s the same sky Roma Ryan wrote her poem about. Guests on retreat get an evening with it directly, at a guided stargazing session at the Sark Observatory, part of every week here. Our Sark after dark article covers how the island’s night sky works and how the designation came about.