''Eye of the Hunter'' is the debut solo album by

Brendan Perry Brendan Michael Perry (born 30 June 1959) is a British singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard. Early life Perry was born in Whitechapel, London, England, UK, in 1959 to a mot ...

, previously the male half of the band

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are a British-Australian band founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, before relocating to London the following year. The Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "const ...

. The album was released by

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of th ...

on 4 October 1999 in the UK and a day later in the US.

Overview

The album's title is found in the lyrics of the album's first single "Voyage of Bran", wherein a character called Brendan says: "''I live by the river where the old gods still dream of inner communion with the open sea / Through the eye of a hunter in search of a prey, neither beast nor human in my philosophy.''"Lyrics from the CD booklet (sung identically as printed). The song "Sloth" first appeared during concerts with

and appears on the band's 2001 box set ''

Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) ''Dead Can Dance (1981–1998)'' (2001) is a four-disc box set, containing three CDs of music spanning Dead Can Dance's career and a DVD of their 1994 video release ''Toward the Within''. While most of the tracks are taken from previously rel ...

''. "I Must Have Been Blind" is a cover of a

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his ...

song, from his 1970 album ''

Blue Afternoon ''Blue Afternoon'' is the fourth studio album by Tim Buckley, released in November 1969. It is Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's label Straight Records. The album used the same group of mus ...

''. Perry later covered another song by Buckley, "Dream Letter," which was released the following year on the tribute album '' Sing a Song for You''.

Reception

Critical reception to the album was generally positive.

Track listing

Note: The title "Voyage of Bran" refers to Irish story

The Voyage of Bran The Voyage of Bran ( [], meaning "The Voyage of Bran [son of Febail]") is a medieval seventh- or eighth-century Irish language narrative. Source The date of composition has been assigned to the late 7th or early 8th century, and the text is kn ...

, and "Medusa" to the mythological

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her wa ...

Personnel

;Musical *

– vocals, 12-string guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, keyboards :''with'' *Glen Garrett – electric bass guitar, upright bass guitar *Liam Bradley – drums *Martin Quinn – pedal steel guitar *Michael Brunnock – backing vocals on "Saturday's Child" ;Technical *Mastered by Walter Coelho at Masterpiece ;Graphical *Art direction by Brendan Perry *Design by Chris Bigg *Back cover photograph by Dennis Di Cicco *Textures by v23 (

Vaughan Oliver Vaughan Oliver (12 September 1957 – 29 December 2019) was a British graphic designer based in Epsom, Surrey. Oliver was best known for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship wit ...

)

References

External links

''Eye of the Hunter''
at

: with audio samples * : with links to artists works
''Eye of the Hunter''
at Dead-can-dance.com: with a Perry quote
''Eye of the Hunter'' lyrics
(official) at DCD Within: with some typos

(fansite) at Dead-can-dance.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Eye of the Hunter 1999 debut albums 4AD albums Brendan Perry albums