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Voice Of Eye is the duo of Bonnie McNaim and Jim Wilson (formerly of the avantgarde ensemble Cruor), based in Houston (Texas),
who began their careers at the turn of the decade in the noise/industrial combo
Esoterica Landscapes 7 with the album Hokmah Nistarah.
Voice Of Eye's specialty is "organic sound sculpting": a form of
electronic ethnic ambient music that relies mainly on electronic drones and
manipulated instruments.
The cassettes Isolation, Voice of Eye and
Resonant Fields/ Hot Gypsy Fink
were still rudimentary experiments, but already displayed a thick trancey
mix of sources, often with exotic overtones. The result was
only superficially related to Steve Roach.
Mariner Sonique (Cyclotron, 1993), that features Ure Thrall,
reveals two skilled and elegant arrangers, who can turn a musical piece
into a truly challenging experience. The orchestrations of
Transmission and Deja Heir fuses elements of ambient, progressive,
industrial and world music with a manic attention on the "flow" rather than on
the texture. The album runs the gamut from
celestial new-age music (Melange Nun) to
cosmic tapestry (Deep BE Vox) to
shoegazing/droning meditation (Epitaph For King Lear).
The duo actually employs humble instruments (mostly home-made).
The duo's artistic breakthrough came with the
seven Vespers (Cyclotron, 1994), imbued with medieval spirituality and
Eastern transcendence (Waking, Blooming, Melting).
Ethereal voices, string instruments and ethnic accents recall a remixed version
of Popol Vuh.
The Hungry Void (Cyclotron, 1995) is a two-disc collaboration with
Life Garden.
They also appear on Narratives: Music For Fiction (Manifold, 1996) with
Paul Schutze and Robert Rich.
The six stages of Transmigration (Cyclotron, 1996) return to
Vespers' organic flow of ghostly drones, this time inspired by the
"Tibetan Book of the Dead".
The sound
(especially in the tour de force of Transmigration)
acquires the "primitive/futuristic" flavor of Steve Roach's anthropological journeys.
Oblivion is a more austere piece, harking back to
Harold Budd's celestial dreams and to Karlheinz Stockhausen's harsh collages.
The Live (Anomalous, 1998) includes a lengthy jam,
Flight Of Re,
The double-discs titled Anthology (Transgredient, 2011) contain
rarities.
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