• The Eye of the Eagle review by Heather Beckmyer for CelticChristianTunes.com
• The Eye of the Eagle review by James Stewart from The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Eye of the Eagle video review by James Stewart from The Phantom Tollbooth

The Eye of the Eagle

An otherworldly atmosphere opens Eye of the Eagle with a sound effect of deep breathing, or the soughing of the sea, setting the scene for relaxation and vulnerability in worship. "Open Our Eyes" creates an expansive sense of space, a large open area where one can sense freedom and peace.

Throughout, the superb musicianship carries the compositions forward with well-balanced arrangements and a variety of treatments. For example, in "Hymn of the Universe, Part One, The Endless Cycle", the saxophone sounds like a questioning call. It is the perfect accompaniment to the narrated lament, "Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" As are the dissonant background vocals by the St Edmundsbury Boys Choir, which add to the depiction of modern angst. "Though the Dawn Breaks" features the saxophone melody with organ in the background creating an interesting texture of traditional church music sound and modern jazz improvisation. In "Upon a Path of Light," the piano floats impressionistically atop a synthesized wash of sound with chords that are reminiscent of Debussy, in his Cathedrale Engloutie. Dramatically impressive is Scott Farrell on the St Edmundsbury Cathedral Organ blasting out huge chords in "The Lightener of the Stars." "King of Moon, Sun and Stars" opens with bells tolling and a beautiful female voice chanting rhythmically. The vocal counterpoint is particularly riveting. These elements of worship style unify the contemplative theme. "A World Within a World" brings the listener full circle, as it concludes with the breathing of the surf and ghostly vocals soaring over the waves.

The general mood of the CD with the combination of wordless voices, mournful whistles and lamenting saxophone creates a sense of longing. Electronic ostinato backgrounds prevail, with instruments tastefully layered on top. The whole CD is blissfully free of overt percussion. The tranquility invites contemplation.

Occasionally, there seems to be too much space between the parts of the sentences in the narration, causing a sense of disjointedness. In "Hymn of the Universe, Part Two: Like a World Behind the Song" there is a sudden segue into guitar. A breath of time to let the angst settle before this major key, happier tune enters seems necessary.

Narration is drawn from a variety of sources, including the Carmina Gadelica, TS Eliot, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Psalms. It includes extracts from the best selling book The Eye of the Eagle, written and read by leading Celtic poet David Adam.

Performers Dave Bainbridge (keyboards, guitars, etc), David Fitzgerald (saxophones, whistles, etc), Scott Farrell (organ), Moya Brennan and Shona MacDonald (voices) and the St Edmundsbury Boys Choir (directed by James Thomas), craft their music with expertise.

One has a choice with "Eye of the Eagle." You can get the CD with narration, featuring Canon David Adam or without narration. The CD with narration would be good for those people who want to use it as a guided meditation or prayer aid, and who enjoy the timbre of the narrator's voice. For daily listening, many will prefer the backing tracks only CD (i.e. instrumental only).

--Review by Heather Beckmyer for CelticChristianTunes.com

The Eye of the Eagle

Once upon a time there were two men called Dave. Dave Fitzgerald and Dave Bainbridge were session musicians playing in the backing band for established Christian artist Adrian Snell, but in their soundchecks they began to experiment musically. When united with vocalist Joanne Hogg a new band was born, Iona. Fitzgerald has since moved on from Iona, to study his art further and fall in love with liturgical music, but they still believe that together they have a very special musical connection. While Iona is on sabbatical the two friends have joined together with their namesake, David Adam, to create the intricate mesh of atmospheric music and meditative spoken words that is The Eye of the Eagle.

The way the words and the music are knitted together on this album it is difficult to know which inspired the other. In reality the readings are taken from the already-penned Adam title which this album is named after, and by which Iona were influenced on their Journey Into the Morn album. The words were chosen as the music was woven together, hence the close connection, and at times the words trail off to allow the music to develop their theme. Adam narrates throughout and he has a most appropriate voice, combining authority with some gentleness and a soft edge.

It was suggested when news of this project first came out that it was to be a follow-up to Iona's Book of Kells album, the last that Fitzgerald was directly involved with, but to see this as Book of Kells part two would be to pigeon-hole it wrongly. The music shows more of the liturgical tradition that Fitzgerald encountered as he studied for a masters degree in music. While retaining some of the Celtic instrumentation of Iona, and containing the strongly Celtic vocals of Maire Brennan (Clannad) and Shona MacDonald (solo artist), only a few passages fit into that genre.

Fitzgerald continues his traditional role of woodwind player par excellence. His three saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor), flutes, whistles and clarinet are joined by a couple of more unusual instruments and work particularly well in a number of plaintive roles, with only gentle backing. Bainbridge brings his keyboard, piano, and guitar skills together with some bozouki, various bells, and programming and arrangement work. While the musicianship is stunning, the arrangements are probably the oustanding part of this recording as a classical boys's choir and a cathedral organ fit in seemingly effortlessly.

The one thing that does seem at times lacking is percussion. This is not an album that would benefit from crashing drums but perhaps some light, creative percussion and a little more bass would have done the arrangements some service. Without this, some listeners may not find this dynamic enough, but they will certainly be losing out as with concerted listening there are many gems to discover. The spoken word sections may also not be to everyone's taste, but they are well executed. For those who really do not want to have them in place during every listen an alternative version of the CD without those vocals is available from the musicians.

It is difficult to know how to sum this recording up. It is epic in places, but simple in others. Suffice it to say that the arrangements are magnificent. Not to every listner's tastes certainly, but an exploration worth making. Perhaps it would be best to leave you with one of Adam's contributions to this project which sums up what the musicians are trying to bring to life in their work:

We need to keep a vision of this other world.
Not as a place far away or set in another time,
But a world that keeps breaking into our lives.
Not a world that runs parallel to ours,
But a world that is closely inter-woven with ours,
In fact a world in which our world shares
And into which we can enter.

Rated 5 out of 5

--Review by James Stewart from The Phantom Tollbooth, republished with permission

The Eye of the Eagle

Some months after the initial release of The The Eye of the Eagle album, a video has been put together, mixing clips from the live premiere of the material in Norwich Cathedral with interviews with Dave Fitzgerald, Dave Bainbridge, and David Adam, the three creators of the album's music and verse. The music is, of course, of the highest calibre: ethereal Celtic sounds shaped by Fitzgerald's many woodwind instruments, Bainbridge's keyboards and stringed instruments, and a selection of excellent vocalists and the cathedral's boys's choir. The spoken word parts are contributed by a cathedral staff member, and are intentionally evocative.

The interview segments give glimpses into the lives of those involved in the creation of The Eye of the Eagle. Dave Bainbridge introduces the viewer to his beloved Yorkshire countryside; we see David Adam in the beautiful setting of Lindisfarne Abbey, and Dave Fitzgerald explains why Norwich Cathedral is special to him.

One of the accompanying album's great strengths is its completeness. It works as a whole that requires overall relaxed listening. Unfortunately, the video loses some of this quality because the music's flow is interrupted by the interviews. The transitions are handled well, and for those who are already familiar with the album it will not be overly bothersome. But for someone wishing to discover this project for the first time, this is not the medium in which to find it. Instead, this video serves as an interesting companion piece to the album, but no substitute for its audio-only counterpart.