''Cathedral Oceans'' (after 2003 also referred to as ''Cathedral Oceans I'') is an album of
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
by
John Foxx
John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the New wave music, new wave band Ultravox, before leaving ...
, released in 1997. Alongside ''Shifting City'' released on the same day, it marked Foxx's return to the music scene after an absence of seven years. It was also his first solo album since 1985's
In Mysterious Ways. The album's artwork consists of collages by Foxx himself, overlaying various pictures and textures with the faces of statues.
''Cathedral Oceans'' is a long ongoing project by Foxx; the first recordings that appear on this album were made as early 1983. In 1987 ''Cathedral Oceans'' material was played live by Foxx in various buildings, gardens and cathedrals in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and Rome. As a result of the long genesis of the album it does sound somewhat fragmented in places, but the overall effect is soothing, almost pastoral ambience created by extensive usage of reverb and echo coupled with Gregorian chanting. The sound of this album is far removed from the steely, detached cityscapes Foxx is best known for, but it does bear resemblance to tracks such as "The Garden" from
the album with the same name and "Enter The Angel II" from ''
In Mysterious Ways''. "Sunset Rising" was included on Foxx's 2001 compilation album ''Modern Art''.
In 2003 ''Cathedral Oceans'' (now called ''Cathedral Oceans I'') was released as a two-disc set with ''
Cathedral Oceans II''. A third album in the series, ''Cathedral Oceans III'', followed in 2005.
In 2016 all three albums were released on five 12" vinyl records in a hardback album book set. The book contained a selection of Foxx’s images along with passages from his book “The Quiet Man”. A 12x12 frameable print of one of the images was also included.
Track listing
# "Cathedral Oceans" - 5:17
# "City as Memory" - 5:43
# "Through Summer Rooms" - 6:35
# "Geometry and Coincidence" - 5:24
# "If Only..." - 3:21
# "Shifting Perspective" - 2:33
# "Floating Islands" - 6:07
# "Infinite in All Directions" - 5:50
# "Avenham Collonade" - 6:12
# "Sunset Rising" - 2:37
# "Invisible Architecture" - 3:22
* All tracks written by John Foxx, except "City as Memory" and "Sunset Rising" by John Foxx and Peter Griffiths, and "Infinite in All Directions" by John Foxx and Louis Gordon.
Personnel
* John Foxx – Guitar, Vocals, Producer, Engineer, Images
* Peter Griffiths – Engineer
* Andy Robinson – Digital Editing
* Chris Thorpe – Digital Mastering, Assembly
* Mick Williams – Engineer
References
External links
Cathedral Oceans at metamatic.comCathedral Oceans, the official Cathedral Oceans site
{{Authority control
John Foxx albums
1997 albums