Nektar
"Journey to the Centre of the Eye" (1971)
Remastered (2004)
Roye Albrighton / guitar, lead vocals
Derek "Mo" Moore / bass, backing vocals
Ron Howden / drums, percussion
Allan "Taff" Freeman / keyboards, backing vocals
Mick Brockett / Mick Brockett / lighting, projections and visual effects
Concepts by Mo & Mick
Music by Roye, Taff, Mo & Ron
Lyrics by Roye, Mo & Mick.
A NEKTAR composition. |
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"Their first album is a incredible piece of spacey–progressive with great
space–sound on both guitar and organ. The album has a concept, and all the
songs floats into each other. There's not much meaning in pointing out highlights,
cause this is one of those albums that works best in its entirety. Listen to it
from start to end, and you'll surely get a very enjoyable journey to the centre
of the eye! Especially side one has some awesome instrumental parts, that will appeal
to any fan of space–progressive. Side two is also great, with some great mellotron
on "Burn out my eyes". A great debut from a great band," Tommy
Shoenbergs.
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- Prelude
- Astronaunts Nightmare
- Countenance
- The Nine Lifeless Daughters Of The Sun
- Warp Oversight
- The Dream Nebula I
- The Dream Nebula II
- It's All In The Mind
- Burn Out My Eyes
- Void Of Vision
- Pupil Of The Eye
- Look Inside Yourself
- Death Of A Mind
Bonus Tracks on Remastered Cd:
- 1-2-3-4
- Do You Believe In Magic
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Prelude: An introduction
Astronaunts Nightmare:
A rocket leaves Earth on a course for Saturn, at a time when Earth is on the verge
of a nuclear World war.
Countenance: The
rocket is intercepted by a Saucer of unknown origin. The astronaunt joins it and
learns that the Saucer had been observing Earth for many years and was surprised
at our warlike ways. The strangers offer to show the Astronaunt life in their Galaxy.
The Astronaunt agrees and they leave together.
The Nine Lifeless Daughters Of The
Sun: The interstellar ship thrusts away from the sun and our
solar system into the void and de–materialises into Hyperspace.
Warp Oversight:
Once in a state of no time – no space, the ship is subject to a strange journey
and then suddenly re–materialises in another Galaxy.
The Dream Nebula:
The new Galaxy is so serene and beautiful. The atmosphere creates incredible dreams
in his mind, and gives him great knowledge.
It's All In the Mind:
The new insight expands more than he can bear and he breaks mentally wanting to
see no more.
Burn Out My Eyes:
His wish is granted, he sees only with his mind, he struggles with his senses trying
to regain control of himself.
Void Of Vision:
Now traveling at great speed down a long beautiful valley, he realizes that there
is more to life than he had ever thought. Suddenly he sees a great shinning EYE
suspended in space — "THE ALL SEEING EYE"!
Pupil Of The Eye:
He enters the Eye to try and comprehend the universe inside himself.Suddenly he
becomes the Eye and sees at once everything there is to see. It is so wonderfull
and at the same time so horrible, he is afraid. He realizes that everything he as
seen, exsists on Earth although he had not noticed before because of all the wars.
Look Inside Yourself:
His mind cries out to anyone willing to listen that they should look for themselves
and try to understand that Earth is heading for total destruction.
Death Of A Mind:
As if in warning his mind drifts back to his departure and he visualises the destruction
of Earth!
Mick, "I'll start with the title....
Journey to the Centre (center) of the Eye (I)...
The bracketed inclusions were the alternatives... We chose the British spelling,
and the optical references because it all started with Asronauts' Nightmare, which
was a stand alone piece written a few months after we'd all seen Kubricks' 2001
in 1970. The ideas stemmed from my lightshow with the Pretty Things for their SF
Sorrow, a precursor to the Whos' "Tommy", both of which were acclaimed "Rock Operas",
... so Mo and I had discussed the idea of a "Space Opera" based on the Prophecy
piece "Oddysey" (Oddysee)which I'd done a lightshow to in 1969 when we
first met.
Well Journey never did include Oddysey, as we built the album pretty much in order,
and Oddysey never seemed to quite fit. "Countenance" was a segue that
Taff and Roye built up and I titled, likewise "The Nine Lifeless Daughters
of the Sun", as they are both intrumentals for which the title provides the
picture... (count the bass riff notes.. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.)
The astronaut had just left Earth on the verge of nuclear destruction, been hi-jacked
by a flying saucer, looked back on an almost dead solar system and now entered Warp
Oversight, where the starship is in hyperspace, a place without time or space, which
was influenced by our exposure to Karl-Heinz Stockhausen in 1970.. we all sat central
to one of his multi-channeled live sound exhibitions, and were blown away. When
we returned to our cellar in Seeheim, the lads dabbled around with sounds that could
be obtained from each instrument with very few actual notes, and it fit into the
story at just the right time.. THEN, Dream Nebula whips you out of that cacophanous
and unmusical area into lush tones and descriptive lyrics with the intent of bringing
the listener back into focus with reality, and therin is the (I) mentioned when
I started.. as it is really all just a fantastic journey to the center of yourself...
but I DID have an EYE as a lightshow slide,... so why not play with it?.. so we
did.
Everything was "perfect" in the Dream Nebula, yet the hi-jacked astronaut
had witnessed the demise of mankind, and didn't want to "see" such beauty, so it
all became a dream in his mind once his wish to be blinded was granted in "Burn
out my Eyes". His other senses took over for his meeting with the "all
seeing eye". I should interject that my father was blind, I'd grown up as his
eyes when we were together, so this definitely had a subliminal influence on the
lyrics and storyline (recurring in RTF of course)of Journey. Anyway, substitute
the Eye for God... and he meets his maker, gets to see everything through his mind,
realises that everything on Earth was in the eyes of THE maker, and (like Recycled)
it's up to mankind to make a difference. We were in our twenties when we wrote Journey,
and the 1970 world was a very different place, the nuclear fears at that time...
Vietnam, Russia, China.. who knew? Jimi & Janis died, the Beatles broke up, and
the freedom of the sixties gave us poetic licence to express our feelings about
our possible future. Either way, it was an ambitious first release that set the
tone for others!"