Eye of the Hunter is the debut solo album by Brendan Perry

Brendan Perry

Brendan Michael Perry is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.-Early life:...

, previously the male half of the band Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance are an ethereal neoclassical duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart...

. The album was released by 4AD

4AD

4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...

 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."

The song "Sloth" first appeared during concerts with Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance are an ethereal neoclassical duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart...

 and appears on the band's 2001 box set Dead Can Dance (1981–1998). "I Must Have Been Blind" is a cover of a Tim Buckley

Tim Buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...

 song, from his 1970 album Blue Afternoon

Blue Afternoon

Blue Afternoon, released in 1969, was Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's Straight record label. This was Buckley's fourth album after Tim Buckley, Goodbye and Hello, and Happy Sad...

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

Sing a Song for You: Tribute to Tim Buckley

Sing a Song for You: Tribute to Tim Buckley is a double CD studio album performed by various artists in tribute to 1960s musician Tim Buckley. The album is named after a Buckley song of the same name which is also the first track on the first disc...

.

Reception

Critical reception to the album was generally positive. Music historian Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi received a degree in Mathematics in 1982 from University of Turin, where he did work on the General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at...

 summarized Eye of the Hunter as "an intensely personal statement arranged for (synthesized) orchestra and a plethora of acoustic instruments, but more reminiscent of Nick Cave

Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

 and Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

 than his old band." He also ranked it among the "Best Rock Albums of 1999" and the "Best Rock Albums of the 1990s."

Track listing

Note: The title "Voyage of Bran" refers to Irish story The Voyage of Bran, and "Medusa" to the mythological Medusa

Medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...

.

Personnel

Musical

• Brendan Perry
  Brendan Perry
  Brendan Michael Perry is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.-Early life:...
  
   – 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
  Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer based in Epsom, South of London. Oliver is most noted for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23...
  
  )

External links

• Eye of the Hunter at 4AD
  4AD
  4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
  
  : 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
• Eye of the Hunter lyrics (fansite) at Dead-can-dance.com