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BATES, MARTYN - Chamber Music I : Song Setting of James Joyce Poems

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Sub Rosa SR81 Release Year: 1994 Price (incl. 19% VAT): €14.00 More Info "Like Barry [Gerald Barry], singer – songwriter Martyn Bates (founder, with Peter Becker, of the 80s pop group Eyeless In Gaza) has turned for inspiration to Irish folk music, and also to the poems of James Joyce. Chamber Music One is the first part of a project to set the complete poems to music. The publicity claims, rather anti-climactically, that Martyn Bates is ”one of the great English songwriters (in the tradition of Nick Drake). The song settings are simple and often same-sounding: haunting, mournful, folkish. The voice gets treated to varied reverb, and you have to get used to the shaky intonation and vocal swoops to depths he can’t manage. The prettiest and most folksy track is ’Go Seek Her Out Courteously’ with its hammered guitar backing. ’From Dewey Dreams’ – with solo harmonica and oceanic Ambience – is almost bluesy. The Ambient background is a key feature – on nine of the 27 tracks that’s all there is. An attractive and definitely not unexpressive release.” [Andy Hamilton / Wire]