I am new to Cathie Ryan's music, and bought this CD after hearing her perform some of it live recently. I am not new to Celtic music, however, and have a decent collection of particularly female Celtic artists (some of whom I like more than others). It is against this background of experience, and admittedly passion for the beauty of this kind of music, that I make these comments. This CD is indeed a jewel, clearly an album of striking beauty that I (uncustomarily) listen to all the way through. I would describe the overall tone as sort of elegantly beautiful, a mature and very classy work by Cathie and a group of superb professionals. Which is not to say it's stuffy or ethereal or all of one sound (some of the songs are fast and spirited, some slower). It is just extremely well-executed work consisting of very tuneful Celtic music in the folk idiom. Cathie's voice is one of sheer ability--it's just cleanly beautiful and totally competent in every musical place on this album. Luxurious. The musicianship is equally superb, very tasteful, and rich while not overdone. The overall sound and style of the songs I would describe as more contemporary than traditional, a balance that suits my taste. As mentioned above, the whole album is a pleasure to listen to, but some of the songs are of the kind that put you into that affective space of hypnotic beauty--the kind that obviously carve out their own place in the musical world, and that you hope to find on every album you buy, and sometimes do. You know where they are in your collection. I can't resist naming three of these on this CD: The title song "The Farthest Wave", "As the Evening Declines", and "Be Like the Sea". To sum up, this is a gorgeous piece of work by a truly top talent that I believe will be extraordinarily enjoyable to anyone who likes this genre of music, and very likely to many who think they don't. One seldom gets their hands on a CD of this sheer quality.