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Mercy
Oceans CD Durtro Jnana 007 19 November 2007 |
Under The Water * We Love * The Sun Came Out *
High Star * All the Birds * Born Into You * Raw Heart * At Dawn * I Am
* Storm & Thunder
‘Mercy Oceans’ has been two years in the making. I started the initial recordings at the DIving Bell during my time in Glasgow. Once settled in Hastings I continued with the recordings up north at Colin Potter's Water Tower. That's some studio. How many studios do you come across where you have a full birds’ eye view of the world outside while you're laying down the tracks? Isobel Campbell, Keith Wood, Baby Dee, John Contreras and Jerome Alexandre have all added their wonderful spirits to some of the songs. Songs that begin to take on a life of their own…
’Trees Hold Time’ was influenced by two and a half years’ of endless travelling and hobo-like existence. ‘Mercy Oceans’ is more personal and reflective of the world outside and inside. Much of the imagery within the lyrics is symbolic of feelings inside and the state of a mind. ‘We Love’ for example are my feelings towards people in the world that use their religions to justify killing. Where there is madness, we cannot address madness with more madness. We can only address through Ahimsa, Satya and Love. ‘Under the Water’ reflects the inner and outer searching of the ‘treasure’. There is a very fine line between finding that hidden treasure and insanity. Most of the songs for this album came to me in one big long stream of consciousness in a very short space of time.The main artworks for the album were created by Beth Carter. I came across Beth's work while spending an inordinate amount of time down in Penzance, Cornwall. I just fell in love with her work the moment I viewed it in a small gallery in Newlyn (just outside Penzance). One of the main mediums she works with is bronze; she makes these amazing bronze sculptures of mythical beings. A Minotaur for the garden…
Cam Archer took all the photos. All the photos were taken while we were shooting the video for ‘We Love’. Cam came down to Hastings one cold fresh morning with some very old Super 8 film stock. We just wondered around flying kites and looking at our feet in the ocean. It's a beautiful piece of film with no special effects; the film stock was that old! View and download the hi-definition version here.