Following the release of her 2002 compilation box set Only Time – The Collection, Enya took a short break before she started work on a new album in September 2003, her first since A Day Without Rain (2000).

She resumed in September 2003, starting work on Amarantine, her first studio album since her commercially successful 2000 release, A Day Without Rain.

Recording took place at Aigle Studio, a facility installed at the Ryan's home in Killiney, County Dublin in Ireland.

[7] The lyrics to "Sumiregusa" are inspired by hokku, the opening stanza to the Japanese form of poetry renga and renku, written by the poet Matsuo Bashō who once felt his heart leap "at the sight of a wild violet".

The album also marks the first published use of Loxian, a fictional language created by Roma Ryan during the development of "Water Shows the Hidden Heart".

[8] Roma said she created words for Enya's voice "so the poetry of the lyrics sit on the curves of the music", and initially named it Errakan.

Roma described the latter track as a song whereby the Loxians "send their words out into the night ... expressing their quest to discover if they are alone in the universe".

[19] These four tracks were released as an extended play named Sounds of the Season: The Enya Holiday Collection in the United States and Christmas Secrets EP in Canada.

[25] In September 2004, "Sumiregusa (Wild Violet)" was released as a single in Japan as part of a television advertising campaign for Panasonic.

Sarah Tomlinson wrote a positive review in The Boston Globe, remarking that the album displays Enya's "trademark dreamy elegance".

[27] In a review for the Associated Press published in The Daily Herald, Matt Moore wrote that like her previous albums, Amarantine is "haunting and ethereal, with music that undulates in soft, almost shimmering fashion".

The songs, he thought, are "a welcome offering of soft yet rhythmic vocals, lush instrumentation and lyrics", which make up a "decidedly satisfying" album that does not break any new ground but nonetheless "excels at setting the mood".

... She does what she's good at, which is conjure mystical dream worlds bathed in multitracked vocal harmonies and enough reverb to make Phil Spector nervous".