Martyn Bates on a solo trip. He is known from collaborations with Anne Clark and Mick Harris, but especially from the band Eyeless in Gaza in which he operated together with Peter Becker. This album is produced together with him as well and originally released in 1995. This time around re-released by the Swiss Shayo label. Eyeless in Gaza stands for ethereal wave that resembles the sound made famous by the bands on the illustruous 4AD label.

Organ compositions with subtle extra instrumentation, such as bagpipes, violins, drums and guitar lay a wide-stretched base above which the dominant but phenomenal voice of Martyn Bates is free to experiment around and drags the listener into his own special world of sounds. The songs are all quiet in tempo, miles away from rockmusic but do have a sense of popmusic which makes this avantgarde take easy to digest. Arty pop with an ethereal wave feel is a pretty accurate description of the music of Eyeless in Gaza. Sometimes cinematographic of character and sometimes a combination of ambient and folk. This music addresses your subconscious and the appreciation of it is of course influenced by your mood. This new release has been given new artwork that is beautifully designed.

This will appeal to fans of band such as Cocteau Twins but also fans of the work of David Sylvian. Mystery Seas is a beautiful album, for which words fall short to describe it in a review. So i can best recommend you to have a listen for yourself. Martyn Bates is back, recently did concerts in Belgium, his first outside the UK since 1986, and has a new album out. As if this were not enough there is also a recent collaboration with the German ambient-drone project Troum as well as compilation albums of both Martyn Bates and Eyeless in Gaza. Bueatiful times for the fan of the voice and music of Bates.