The Eagle and the Ocean
Riley Lee is a master shakuhachi player, and this disc is the fruit of a studio meeting with guitarist Geoff Ween-Vermazen: a set of ambient-style improvisations. Definitely soul-food here.
Recorded in a single day at The Loft Studios, Sydney, the album pairs Lee’s shakuhachi with Ween-Vermazen’s electric guitar. Producer Tony Lewis brought the two musicians together; they had not worked with each other before.
Reviews
…a slow landscape of repose and melancholy, never far removed from Oriental sensitivity. Plenty of atmosphere for shaking cobwebs and relaxing.
This is a truly remarkable recording where, like two lovers, the sweet peacefulness of the shakuhachi and the wonderfully lyrical guitar lines seem to entwine. I have been listening to this kind of music for nearly 20 years and I have never heard a more impressive Australian recording… This is music of great emotional depth and rare beauty.
Artists
Riley Lee
Riley Lee plays the shakuhachi as living breath: honkyoku meditation pieces that float, pulse and yearn, and studio improvisations that turn bamboo into slow landscapes of repose.
Geoff Ween-Vermazen
Geoff Ween-Vermazen is an electric guitarist and composer whose recorded work centres on lyrical, atmospheric studio improvisation.
Tracks
- Long Forgotten Rememberings Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 5:19
- Awakening the Deep Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 4:44
- The Eagle and the Ocean Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 5:09
- Night Flying Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 6:09
- At One with the Motion Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 5:37
- Time to Move On Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 4:52
- Clearing Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 4:18
- Sky Sensations Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 6:01
- Winged Utterings Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen Tony Lewis 5:13
- Soaring Grace Riley Lee Geoff Ween-Vermazen 4:41
Performers
- Riley Lee · shakuhachi
- Geoff Ween-Vermazen · electric guitar
Composer
Tony Lewis
Tony Lewis works in Sydney as a percussionist, pianist, composer, teacher and recording producer, primarily in indigenous and multicultural musics and in music for contemporary dance.
Contributors
Photography
Ross Penman
Cover
Tony Smibert
Where to listen
The Eagle and the Ocean is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
The Eagle and the Ocean is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- TP014
- Total playing time
- 52 minutes 3 seconds
- Producer
- Tony Lewis
- Recording Engineer
- Tony Lewis
- Venue
- The Loft Studios, Sydney
- Credit
- Ross Penman
Tony Smibert - Release date
- 28 Apr 1992
- Label
- Tall Poppies
- Musical work
copyright - © Tall Poppies Records
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ Tall Poppies Records
- Category
- Improvisation
- Genres
- World & Cross-cultural, Jazz & Improvised
- Barcode
- EAN 9399000001423
Related recordings
Phoenix Crying: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 6
Riley Lee continues his survey of Japanese meditation melodies, or honkyoku, for shakuhachi. Recorded in the sumptuous acoustic of the Australian National Acoustics Laboratory reverberation room, the playing seems to float. The programme includes Lee performing both parts of the famous duet Nesting of the Cranes.
Searching: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 7
Riley Lee completes his survey of the Japanese meditation melodies, or honkyoku, for shakuhachi. The pieces were recorded in the sumptuous acoustic of the Australian National Acoustics Laboratory reverberation room. Riley sounds as if he is floating.
Deep Night: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 5
Fifth in Riley Lee’s seven-CD survey of the complete lineage of 13th-century Japanese honkyoku—solo meditation pieces for shakuhachi. Lee was the first non-Japanese player to attain grand mastery of the instrument.
Autumn Field: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 4
The fourth of seven CDs presenting the complete lineage of thirteenth-century Japanese honkyoku, or meditation pieces, performed by Riley Lee, the first non-Japanese player to attain grand mastery of the shakuhachi.
Raft Song at Sunrise: Chamber Music, Vol. 2
Following the best-selling first volume of Ross Edwards’s chamber music (TP051), this disc gathers some of his most enduring works, recorded here for the first time.
Empty Sky: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 3
Volume 3 of a monumental seven-CD set. Riley Lee, the first non-Japanese grand master of the shakuhachi, presents the complete lineage of the orally transmitted 12th-century Japanese meditation melodies known as honkyoku.