Mystery Seas

Eyeless In Gaza, Martyn Bates | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 1, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hand Eye
• ASIN: B00000593T
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #636,624 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You Looking To Me For A Sign

2. Shorepoem

3. Calm Of Dark

4. Imagination Feels Like Poison

5. Trade Winds

6. Over The Waters

7. Everywhere Theres Rain

8. Empty Pages

9. Midday Coming Misty

10. On The Beach At Fontana

11. Sky After All

12. Fragment (Little Star Number 1)

13. If I Could See In Everyone

14. Of Night

15. Gift

Editorial Reviews

Full title 'Mystery Seas (Letters Written #2)'. Second volume of the 'Letters Written' series from British guitarist/singer Martyn Bates who was one-half of Eyeless in Gaza & is one of the most individual and idiosyncratic of English vocalists. 'Mystery S

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Beautiful Secret to Own", February 17, 2004

By 

D. B. Rocca (Parkland, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystery Seas (Audio CD)

While this inscription (taken from the song 'Of Night'), proclaimed on the back of the CD, may seem somewhat arrogant, it is amazingly accurate. Mystery Seas, the second installment of MB's Letters Written series, is one of those albums that only a few have discovered; however, its haunting songs about isolation and the spirtual development it engenders feel so universal one wonders how it has remained so obscure. Much like its predecessor, Mystery Sea is mostly voice and organ with some keyboard colorings and mysterious, distant flutes. These songs, though minimal in their execution, feel like full compositions and completely absorb you in thier world. Stand-outs include the opener, "You, Looking to me..." (Martyn's passionate vocals blast over the pulsing organs), "Trade Winds" (a tranquil ballad over waves of "white noise"), "If I Could See in Everyone" (a faster-paced song that must be heard), and "Of Night" (a gorgeous closing piece). While some of the lyrics may seem fragmented, the emotions they describe are often fragmented in nature: the album as a whole fills in any gaps in individual songs. I am tempted to call this Martyn Bates' masterpiece, but since he never stops making great albums who knows! Also recomended: the Twelve Thousand Days CD's, which is Martyn with Alan Trench, and, of course, his work as the duo Eyeless in Gaza with Peter Becker.