Introduction

The singer and musician Martyn Bates has since the early 1980s been important to the development of new folk related music. Originally (and still) a member with Peter Becker of the adventurous independent band, ‘Eyeless In Gaza’ he has also had a long concurrent solo career. In his solo work he started to work in experimental folk music during the late 1980s when synthetic and pomp-rock music were the prevailing forms of the time. Folk music was generally ignored at best and often despised, it was therefore an early and bold move to promote the old traditional songs and stories adapted in new avant-garde settings. During the 1990s he started also to work with Alan Trench, the leader of a mysterious band called ‘Orchis’ as a new band called ‘12000 Days’. Since this time Martyn has used these three routes, Eyeless In Gaza, solo and 12000 Days as his creative outlets. In this profile of his music and career we will look at these three and all related projects such as ‘Orchis’ and ‘Temple Music’.

As we look at Martyn’s career we are unconventionally going to journey back from his current works towards his earlier music. Martyn is an artist whose music genuinely seems to develop towards his artistic vision rather than stagnate. His earlier releases are part of the journey to where he is now, rather than exhausting a small source of youthful inspiration. I first experienced Martyn unknowingly on the soundtracks to Derek Jarman films such as ‘The Garden’ by Simon Fisher Turner, his mid 1990s work was unknown to me part of my ‘post-industrial’ music phase. His music crept up on me until this year when it connected, once heard I was drawn in, finding something here that resonated with where I was in life and the preoccupations of a now middle aged man seeking some understanding of life.

Martyn clearly has his own focus and vision, he is compelled to create and can only channel rather than stem its flow. He absorbs and directs his collaborates and melds them into realising his vision, better in small intimate partnerships than full band settings. He can share his vision but not compromise, he can be graceful in his partnerships but unyielding in his need to set down the impulses driving him at that time. These are qualities often found in true artists, whether it is David Late Tibet's Christian gnosis in Current 93  or Martyn in his various projects. But once realised, Martyn’s visions are captured as albums and it is these that he shares with the listeners. We will look at the key releases by him and his collaborators. In doing this we will seek to get behind the music into the creative inspirations and the broad vision Martyn has articulated.

2001 to 2005

For the last four years there has not been a single release from Martyn Bates, this from an artist who has done four albums in a year before. Thankfully rather than just slip away Martyn has been doing a degree and masters in English plus working with special needs children. However if Martyn was away from music for a while, he certainly was as busy as ever. Our tentative emails of support and discussion with each other were warm but infrequent due to our respective ongoing pressures. However this year Martyn is back in a burst of music creation, just as I started writing this profile. Every time I thought I had a handle on what he was up to, I would find another project on the go. That’s the way with Martyn, either away from music or excitedly with multiple projects.

In the next year we will see a number of new releases for during 2005 Martyn has had a sudden burst of creativity activity. These frenetic concurrent projects is similar to his fertile period during 1994 to 1998. Martyn is about to release his first albums for a few years with Peter Becker as Eyeless In Gaza, with Alan Trench in their ‘12000 Days’ name and later with drone-folklorists ‘Troum’. In addition to these releases, Martyn has been performing a new soundtrack by Alan Trench to the film Häxan live and written a soundtrack for ‘The Resurrection Apprentice’ directed by Dan McQauid.

As ‘12000 Days’ (their band name was taken as indicative of the average number of days left in their lives at band formation) they have a forthcoming album called ‘From The Walled Garden’ on Polish label ‘Shining Day’. This has been proceeded by a wonderfully atmospheric E.P.. called ‘At The Landgate’. We have reviewed this E.P. here  which if this was your first experience of the artist, the listener might imagine them to be a vital, new artist emerging as the music feels fresh. The tracks bring together expansive soundscapes, melodic folk song and seasonal/folklore aspects in the lyrics.

During the Summer of 2005, Martyn also played his first shows for many years as part of ‘Eyeless In Gaza’ which has resulted in a live new DVD ‘Saw You In Reminding Pictures’, one of his current performances and one of those from the earlier phase of their career. Martyn also played live during the Summer in Europe with B’eirth of In Gowan Ring. A short tantalising release by Martyn was his contribution to Tim Renner’s ‘Folklore of the Moon’ CD series during 2005 which used the original ‘Frankenstein’ gothic novel as its inspiration.

1999 - 2001

It has been a few years between this activity and Martyn’s last official releases. Martyn collaborated extensively with Alan Trench as ‘12000 Days’ during 1999-2001 and released a solo album ‘Dance of Hours’. As 12000 Days there were two albums ‘In The Garden of Wild Stars’ (2000) and ‘The Devil In the Grain’ (2001). These were companions to each other, the second carrying on where the first left off, even having a consistent sleeve design. These were perhaps some of the most evocative and strong releases of Martyn’s career, especially from a folk perspective.

Martyn’s exploratory laments and evocations were married to a shimmering bed of shifting instrumentation, combining the psychedelic with the ancient. String and blown instruments set with subtle technology and sound processing effects. Where ‘In The Garden of Wild Stars’ had a theme of evoking folklore and cosmic wonder, the second ‘The Devil In The Grain’ used the gothic origins of beauty in decay. Although always sounding modern, they also genuinely seemed of another time. However this was no mythical idyll or traditionalist whimsy and there can be few more concise of chilling revealings of nature’s darkness in the title song of ‘The Devil In The Grain’.

As a whole ‘In The Garden of Wild Stars’ is particularly cohesive and feels like a concept album with a vivid, almost film like quality. Lyrically it explores both the beauty and cruelty of nature, of our dependence and ways of expressing this as a spiritual quest. These are modern classics that have erroneously been overlooked in the emerging ‘wyrd folk’ concept and is a vital purchase for all those exploring the area.

After a year of reflection in 2000, there was a mini-album in 2001 called ‘Dance of Hours’ which was issued as Martyn solo. Although a solo album, it was co-produced by Eyeless In Gaza band-mate Peter Becker and had Elizabeth S. their third member of a few years of vocals. In truth the division between the solo and band releases is often unclear as each has Martyn’s strong creative imprint. This mini-album is also classed by Martyn as the third under his ‘Letters Written’ series, the first of which dates back to the early eighties.

As of many of his releases the lyrics seem to explore the beauty of nature, our existence interconnected with the land, the search for spiritual rapture, wonder of the cosmos and the sign-posts available to us as traditional stories and texts. Martyn’s music in his own name is often slightly more drone based under his own name, although always melodic. When solo, Martyn incorporates more of the folk content whereas Eyeless In Gaza is primarily an intelligent popular music band with an experimental aspect. The songs work almost as spirituals, slow to unfold, almost devotional and always questioning. Martyn has an intense, passionate delivery married to mysterious, sometimes mournful instrumental settings. At only half an hour, this release was short and left listeners wanting more. As with many of Martyn’s releases the sleeve has strong use of iconography and imagery, bringing together disparate aspects of the past into a unified artist vision, in a similar way to his music.

In the year before, Eyeless In Gaza had released their most recent album of new music ‘Song of the Beautiful Wanton’ on Soleilmoon Records. The sleeve of this album combined horses, Mummers, girls in garlands and a mysterious picture of the band with Martyn blowing panpipes. Musically the album was a fantastic maturing of their sound, incorporating Martyn’s experimental folk but also their own distinctive electronic pop and Indie guitar sound. Melodically it drew equally on middle eastern music as much as Western music. There were also some excellent new aspects, ‘Lullaby My Liking’ had a soft baby styled lullaby whilst ‘The Silkie’ told the folk story from the point of view of the mythical beast.

Eyeless In Gaza have concentrated on exploring popular song in general and the folk aspect of Martyn appears less frequently.  The 1995 album 'Bitter Apples' was their last album before the 1999 one and was a combination of songs which mixed direct commercial arrangements with the post-punk energy of the early days.  Between the vocal tracks were excellent short atmospheres which were often better than the songs themselves.  It perhaps lacks a focus in comparison to other releases, feeling as though it needs to cover all bases as it moves from indie guitar to synth pop to lush ambience.  It's never less than enjoyable but perhaps tries too hard, their ideas bursting out after a period away when they perhaps might have benefited from settling a little.

Looking through their catalogue we move back through their releases such as ‘Red Rust September’ (strong songs and very atmosphere), ‘Back From The Rains’ (their most pop oriented album) towards early albums like ‘Drumming The Beating Heart’ (instrumental atmospheres) and ‘Caught In Flux’ (post-punk guitar indie). As we move back the band moves from the extended atmospheres of the later releases towards a combination of electronic pop, post-punk guitar and embryonic atmospheric folk. Notable early albums is the full relatively conventional pop sound of ‘Back From The Rains’ now issued with the wonderful proto-wyrd folk EP ‘New Risen’ from 1983 and such as ‘Pale Hearts We Knew So Well’.

There is much to enjoy, perhaps initially on a singles compilation (of which there are a number, mostly duplicating tracks). There is a whole rich back catalogue of intelligent popular music for adults which will appeal to fans of David Sylvian, The Blue Nile, The Sound, The Chameleons and No Man.

1998 and back into mist

We now move back towards perhaps the most influential period of his music. During the five year between 1994 and 1998 Martyn worked intensely releasing more than eight albums. During this time Martyn worked solo, with musician M.J.Harris and with the song writer and singer Anne Clark. It is perhaps his releases with M.J. Harris which were particularly influential, championed by the avant-garde and such magazines as The Wire. This was before the concept of ‘strange’ or ‘wyrd’ folk was really considered actively, there were pockets of individual artists working broadly in this area, but nothing that articulated a strong vision of how folk might evolve.

M.J. Harris was a musician working initially in the thrash/noise area of music Napalm Death, Pigface and Painkiller. He then evolved to become prominent in the area of industrial electronic music. This music itself evolved towards a form of ‘cold’ ambient music sounding like the haunted drones of empty factories. This stark, cold sounding music became known as ‘isolationism’ and was collected together to good effect on Virgin’s fourth volume in the ‘Brief History of Ambient’ series. Musicians such as Thomas Koner and Paul Schutze came from avant-garde music working with processed gongs and bells. Prominent within the UK were artists like Scorn, Final, Ice and Lull. M.J. Harris was Scorn, Lull and behind a number of other pseudonyms.

As Martyn knew a key component of folk music is the drone holding the root note around which other notes move, adding tension or resolution as they add chordal harmonies. Therefore the idea of merging droning cold electronics to the darkest of folklore stories was a more natural idea than perhaps it initially seems. Martyn had been experimenting with such a sound on some of the more experimental Eyeless In Gaza recordings but here he had perhaps the leading UK musician dedicated to this area over which he could intone and sing these literally chilling extended stories. As much audio book as they are song, this was often almost a battle between the two elements, the music moving from ambience into huge disturbing swathes of sound which would immerse Martyn’s vocals.

The idea was a success on their first album ‘Murder Ballads (Drift)’ in 1994 and was feted by those interested in experimental music. Mick Harris and Martyn continued with two more albums ‘Murder Ballads (Passages)' in 1997 and ‘Murder Ballads (Incest)’ in 1998. These albums occupy a curious position, obviously folk in origin but completely deviant in sound and decadent in concept from the original form. These albums act as a springboard for transgressive music incorporating elements of folk. They were in truth also probably the releases which created the myth that people interested in ‘wyrd folk’ only seek the dark side of the music. What Martyn did with these releases was reclaim a form of music that the young and innovative generally had little interest in. He also explored a side of folk music which although always part of the music had been ignored. These three albums have been compiled in their entirety in a low-cost three CD set called ‘Murder Ballads: The Complete Collection’ by Invisible Records that we heartily recommend readers buy.

Important as these three albums were, they were only part of the prolific set of releases during this period. A particularly wonderful album by Martyn with Anne Clark is their ‘Just After Sunset’. Martyn had worked with Anne earlier, contributing to her album ‘The Law is an anagram of Wealth’. On this new collaborative album they explore the nature poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke with Peter Becker involved in the albums gestation. This is a rich, romantic set of songs and instrumentals with wonderful spoken word settings from Anne and Martyn’s singing set amongst luxurious backing. With the combination of the poetry and music there genuinely it does seem to capture a sense of the hidden wonder behind nature, of the invisible holy whatever that means to the listener.

When I obtained this album out of a sense of curiosity and completeness for Martyn’s works I was astounded at how moving and complete it is. More than almost any album I have heard the concept is realised beautifully and movingly on songs like ‘Autumn’. Clearly an album over which great care was taken and with sincere love for the subject matter of the poems, this is perhaps one of the modern masterpieces of modern folk derived music. In a music industry of continuous releases, this album does not have the status it deserves, all fans exploring the music will be rewarded when listening.

As if driven Martyn released four more albums during this period and incredibly they are also at the very peak of his work. There were two albums of what Martyn called ‘Chamber Music’ setting the poetry of James Joyce to music in 1994 and 1996 respectively on Sub Rosa records. This was a personal project for Martyn which took significant effort with the vocals done in one live take, relying so much on his vocal adaptation of the poems. Produced by Peter Becker he keeps the music simple with restrained keyboard and guitar backings, much warmer than the ‘Murder Ballads’ but not as rich as ‘Just As Sunset’. Sometimes the songs are performed with just solo vocal, taking them back towards the folk tradition.

Two of his best and enduring solo albums also came during this five year period. First was ‘Mystery Seas’ (Letters Written)' in 1995 and then the wonderful ‘Imagination Feels Like Poison’. These two appear to be partner releases, each focussing on one particular type of instrument and possessing a song of the title of the partner album.

On ‘Imagination Feels Like Poison’ Martyn sets his songs as stark folk on banjo, pipe organ and guitar and then builds upon them with textured multi-track vocals. This album often feels closer to the USA banjo songs of Roscoe Holcomb than it does to British traditional song. For such a strong album it is perhaps surprising that this was done to accompany a lyric book as it stands up as one of Martyn’s best. The focus of the settings benefits the music hugely, bringing Martyn closer to the listener. He created intense, strummed backings which hint at the deviant folk rock of The Velvet Underground on songs like ‘The Wayward Love’. In theory this album collected songs written but not recorded during the period 1982 to 1995, but this could detract from what seems a cohesive album in its own right. If this was tracks unissued, then he had been holding them back for the right release where they would received the best setting and here this is fully achieved.

The partner album ‘Mystery Seas’ is the second in the ‘Letters Written’ series. On this album Martyn sets his songs into organ based backings. Whereas the other album used the musical percussion of strung instruments, here the songs used sustained chords with organs and sympathetically produced synthesizers. The songs go right back to the drones of traditional song and more than this, to church music. By using organ based settings (with various adornments and vocal layers), Martyn evokes the early Christian hymns and even plain song. It’s an inventive sound which would appeal to fans of traditional folk and electronic music fans all at once, which has to be some achievement. There is a dream state built up from these songs of drifting minimal chords and layers of vocals. What could sound sparse, sounds full and balanced. Songs like ‘Everywhere There’s Rain’ rang as amongst his best with his vocals particularly well delivered.

At the heart of these two albums is a frustration at the lack of inspiration and creativity at the heart of popular culture, the degeneration of mass entertainment towards the unchallenging and soporific. They have a particularly romantic quality, with more in common with the romantic poets of Keats and Shelley than the chart music at the time of the album’s release (which was The Spice Girls and Britpop). Until 2005 these albums had been out of print for years. However these had been influential to artists such as Stone Breath in developing a new atmospheric music using stark folk at its heart. Tim Renner of Stone Breath and the Hand/Eye label is distributing these albums again along with Eyeless In Gaza’s ‘Bitter Apples’ (1995) and ‘Streets I Ran’ (1994) via his label site (links below). How Martyn found time to do all these solo / collaborative releases plus new Eyeless In Gaza defies easy comprehension as each release is distinctive and avoids repetition. We are very grateful to Tim for redistributing these albums and hope there could be more to follow in due course.

Given how many releases we have explored during this period, it is very surprising to find that a further album ‘Songs of Transformation’ was recorded with sound-sculptor Max Eastley (known if at all for his work with David Toop on albums like ‘Buried Dreams’). This was unissued at the time but will be released by Musica Maxima in 2006.

Between the suspension of Eyeless In Gaza in 1987 and the prolific set of releases from 1994 onwards, Martyn released a few albums which are now frustratingly out of print and only available by hunting out at ebay and amazon second-hand. These show the range of Martyn’s artistic interests. One such release from 1991 was ‘Port of Stormy Lights’ which I have been able to obtain. This sets Martyn’s music to a book about distinctive architecture, somehow the mystery of geometric design feels part of Martyn’s wider quest.

In conclusion

Martyn is an artist who has been expressed his evolving vision over a period of more than twenty five years. The comment has been made that he is a traditional singer in a modern music setting similar to Andrew King . This is partially true but Martyn has no time for any concept of musical purity and instead seems to bend and adapt it to become part of his wider notion of ‘folk’ arts.  His is  true evolution of traditional creative arts providing signposts for our reintegration with the landscape and nature.

Thankfully Martyn is also not attempting to define simplistic answers to our long term challenges in notions of traditionalism or narrowly defined paganism.  Rather than attempting the futile task of reviving myths that never were, Martyn spends his time creating music that is, music which brings together our past with the present, expressing his hope for change through the bringing together of art, nature and humanity.

Music For Temples

Since the late nineties Alan Trench has been one of Martyn’s enduring collaborators. Alan creates instrumental music which merges the sensitive use of electronics and sound processing with acoustic instruments.

After playing on Nurse With Wound releases such as ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ he founded Orchis with Tracey Jeffrey and Amanda Prouten. Orchis released a number of albums ‘The Dancing Sun’, A Thousand Winters’, ‘Mandragora’ and the compilation (with extras) ‘Trait’. On these albums Alan brings together the layered female harmony vocals with his incense laden atmospheres of string and blown instruments. These albums combine lyrics from poetry, old folk songs like ‘Blackwaterside’ and self-written songs into music that appears as though through a haze, almost tangible but just out of reach. They are close to but deviant from old folk music, a kind of transgressive traditional music. Alan was exploring similar concepts to Martyn, our interdependence on nature, our fragility set against its harshness, the carrying forward of communal stories across the ages.

As Orchis came to a natural conclusion and Alan began working with Martyn as ‘12000 Days’, he also started creating new music as ‘Temple Music’ for the Shining Day label. ‘Temple Music’ make long instrumental soundscapes designed for ritual use. A first volume of music by them was released which had six pieces, each centred around one of the founding Greek Olympians. These classical figures have provided the archetypes upon which Western symbology, imagery and even traditional stories have been based. As such Alan went back to the very origins of our society. A new album is due on the same label in a couple of months.

Alan has also recently produced a soundtrack to the 1922 Swedish film ‘Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages’, a still surreal and chilling film with the power to unsettle. As a band ‘Seven Voyages’ with both Martyn, Peter, members of his former band Orchis and others. He is touring this and has played it live. We will be covering future releases by Alan at the site and look forward to the new album.

Exclusive Album Reissues & Distribution

Working with the band we have issued a number of their works at our Woven Wheat Whispers servicewhich we hope to grow further over time.

The out of print first two 'Twelve Thousand Days' albums are issued:

An exclusive new Orchis EP (their first works since 1999) are issued here:

http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk

Releases featured in this article

Note: this is only a partial discography
 

A full extensive discography is available at:

• Martyn Bates http://www.eyelessingaza.com/mbdisc.html

• Eyeless In Gaza http://www.eyelessingaza.com/eigdisc.html 
   

Streaming Songs
 

The player below should have commenced and be playing in the background.  The music plays randomly and continuously without repeating until all tracks are done.  Please use the controls like a CD player.  You may stop the music if you do not wish to hear it now. 

All music has been permission granted by Martyn Bates and/or Alan Trench as appropriate.  The music cannot be downloaded.

Useful Links

http://www.eyelessingaza.com/

http://www.ingowanring.com
 

There is birth and there is death.

And

there is beauty,

beauty fading

and there is a different beauty born...