''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 tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

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 band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...

, 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 ''In Mysterious Ways'' is a 1985 album by John Foxx, the follow-up to his album '' The Golden Section'', released two years previously. It features some of the highly romantic style similar to 1981's ''The Garden'' album. Largely missing from ...

. 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 country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 ''

''. "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.com

Cathedral Oceans, the official Cathedral Oceans site
{{Authority control John Foxx albums 1997 albums