Era (musical project)

Era (styled as +eRa+, acronym for “Enminential Rythmn of the Ancestors”) is a New-Age music project by French composer Eric Lévi. They use lyrics (by Guy Protheroe) which, although similar to Greek or Latin, are, in fact, deliberately devoid of any exact meaning. Musically, the project blends Gregorian chants with modern elements and genres, especially rock, pop and electronic music.

Contents

• Style
• Language
• Use of Era music
• Songs
• References

Era’s first album, Era, was released in 1997 and became a worldwide success, helped by its first single “Ameno”. It sold over 6 million copies and became the most exported French album at the time. It was followed by Era 2 in 2000 and The Mass in 2003. In 2008 the project saw a significant departure from its previous themes and presented a more electronic soundscape with Arabic influences in its fourth album, Reborn. In the following two years, Era released Classics and Classics 2, which consisted in contemporary reinterpretations of classical works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, amongst others. In 2013, Era released its latest work, an album in collaboration with French singer and actress Arielle Dombasle entitled Arielle Dombasle by Era.

The project has sold more than 12 million albums.