Of Mary's Blood (album)

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Of Mary’s Blood
Of Mary’s Blood cover
Studio album by Graham Bowers
Released August 1995
Recorded November 1994-April 1995
Genre Experimental music Avant-progressive rock
Length 47.16
Label Red Wharf
Producer Graham Bowers
Professional reviews
Graham Bowers chronology
Of Mary’s Blood
(1995)		 Transgression
(1997)

Of Mary’s Blood is the debut album by Graham Bowers avant-garde British composer. Released in August 1995, it is the first work of a trilogy, the second being Transgression and the third Eternal Ghosts

Contents

[edit] Overview

Bowers’ approach to musical composition tends to bypass the usual conventions of musicality, placing more emphasis on what he describes as “associative listening” (the association of sound related to life experiences) and “Sound Theatre” where, and I quote “if a sound is produced either intentionally or unintentionally on a musical instrument, or is a found sound, if it has relevance and contributes to the assigned and adopted identity within my approach to a composition, it has validity”.

The album consists of one continuous 47minute 16 second track which is divided into three sections 'Always is', 'Always was', 'Always shall be'. The music and sounds are multi layered and in the main heavily treated with digital audio effects, positioned within the stereo perspective to enhance and illustrate the presence and interactivity of identity.

The artwork accompanying the CD are reproductions of Bowers’ figurative and surrealistic paintings.

The album received critical acclaim and still does, the latest and most recent by Tobias Fischer of Mouvement Nouveau - Tokafi (see External links)

The concept behind his thinking is best described by Bowers, so again, I quote, in this instance from the transcript of a radio interview for a Canadian broadcast. “In the case of the Trilogy, which is Of Mary’s Blood, Transgression and Eternal Ghosts, there was an element of forethought in that I wanted to create three separate pieces, where all pieces made some form of reference to each other, not so much in the musical content but in their overall statement. The concept is an attempt to illustrate through music a ‘snapshot’ of where mankind is at this moment in time in terms of his evolving development with respect to his knowledge, his mortality, morals, and spirituality. This snapshot. is my own objective view based on the fact that I am a product of a society and culture based around the Christian religion. Of course it is a gross over generalisation and not meant in any way to pass any intellectual or social comment, it is an audio ‘snapshot’ for the photograph album. Whether I would have seen the world in a different way had I been Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or whatever I just don’t know. I am an atheist, but the product of Christianity, so for me a good starting point was the fertilisation of Mary, with the introduction of 23 chromosomes from God almighty to join the 23 chromosomes waiting in the egg within her earthly body. The message of the resulting DNA’s blueprint for life and intrinsic spirituality, possibly being ‘Always is’, ‘Always was’, ‘Always shall be’, which are the three sections that make up Of Mary’s Blood”

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Always is ~ Always was ~ Always shall be" – 47:16

[edit] Personnel

Performed by
  • Graham Bowers - piano, synthesizer, hammer dulcimer, violin, saxophone, clarinet
  • Peter B Gallagher - piano, synthesizer, guitar, vocals
  • Mark J Porter – saxophone, bass guitar
Mixed by
Engineered by

[edit] External links