Cathedral Oceans

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Cathedral Oceans
Studio album by John Foxx

Publication
(s)

1997

admission

1983-1995

Label (s) Metamatic

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Ambient

Title (number)

11

running time

53:01

production

John Foxx

Studio (s)

  • The Garden, London
  • CYH, Manchester
  • Piano, Rome
chronology
Shifting City
1997 		Cathedral Oceans The Pleasures of Electricity
2001

Cathedral Oceans is the sixth solo album by former Ultravox singer John Foxx . It was released on March 24, 1997 on Foxx's own label Metamatic and is part of a trilogy that also includes the albums Cathedral Oceans II (2003) and Cathedral Oceans III (2005).

Track list

  1. Cathedral Oceans (5:17, Foxx)
  2. City as Memory (5:43, Foxx / Griffiths)
  3. Through Summer Rooms (6:35, Foxx)
  4. Geometry and Coincidence (5:24, Foxx)
  5. If Only ... (3:21, Foxx)
  6. Shifting Perspective (2:33, Foxx)
  7. Floating Islands (6:07, Foxx)
  8. Infinite in All Directions (5:50, Foxx / Gordon)
  9. Avenham Collonade (6:12, Foxx)
  10. Sunset Rising (2:37, Foxx / Griffiths)
  11. Invisible Architecture (3:22, Foxx)

History of origin

After his 1985 album In Mysterious Ways , Foxx lost interest in the music business and worked primarily as a graphic designer. In the early 1990s he began to deal with music again. Inspired by the booming house and acid scene in Detroit and London, he temporarily focused on electronic dance music, so he founded an acid project called Nation XII with Tim Simenon from Bomb the Bass , which included several singles and the computer game soundtracks for Gods and Speedball , and directed the music video for LFO's debut single . From 1992 to 1995 he stayed away from the music business again (apart from a failed band project) and went on to teach graphic design at Leeds Metropolitan University.

The sudden reappearance of Foxx in 1997 must be seen against this musical background. His interest in atmospheric sounds was first indicated in 1981 with the title track on the album The Garden . Formative influences for work in this direction were Foxx's experiences as a choir singer during his childhood as well as reading JG Ballard's novel The Drowned World . The first recordings for Cathedral Oceans took place in 1983, but Foxx interrupted the work because his record company Virgin at the time did not understand this type of music. In 1987 Foxx performed some pieces live in England and Rome, and in 1995 he completed the recordings for the album.

The cover and the rest of the artwork for the album are from Foxx himself, they are alienated and textured photos that he shot of stone statues. Foxx was already interested in the optical motif of the fusion of nature and art in the early 1980s, influenced on the one hand by Ballard and on the other hand by a hiking trip through rural England. Some of the photographs on which the artwork is based were taken in the late 1970s while touring with Foxx's old band Ultravox . Two accompanying media were published parallel to the Cathedral Oceans album: a book with 31 thematically appropriate photographs by Foxx and excerpts from his unpublished novel The Quiet Man as well as a DVD showing a slideshow of Foxx's photographs for the titles of the album .

In 2003 the album was re-released under the title Cathedral Oceans I in conjunction with the content-related follow-up album Cathedral Oceans II . In 2010 the album was released together with Cathedral Oceans II , Cathedral Oceans III and the DVD as The Complete Cathedral Oceans .

reception

Allmusic described the album as a "pleasant surprise" and assessed that the "peaceful and serene background noise" was "perfect for relaxation and meditation" and that the album as a whole was "essential serious music". Fact magazine called Cathedral Oceans Foxx's "most powerful" ambient work.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of Leeds Metropolitan University ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 1.1 MB)
  2. ↑ Article on Cathedral Oceans on QuietCity. Retrieved April 19, 2015 .
  3. ^ Foxx interview on The Quietus. Retrieved April 20, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Article about The Garden on QuietCity. Retrieved April 18, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b Article in Fact magazine from October 14, 2010. Retrieved on April 19, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Review on Allmusic.com. Retrieved April 8, 2015 .