Notes | Track Listing

This Best Of Orpheus collection honors - 40 years later - the vital and unique creative contributions made to the group by writer, musician & artist Stephen Martin, and bassist & writer Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen. The album highlights the songs of Stephen Martin who, although not a performing member of the group until Orpheus IV, gave it a distinct personality, added dimension and artistic edge. Eric Gulliksen, not a "groove bassist" but a bass guitarist, understood the need for the bass as a supporting instrument, but treated his bass as more of a lead or melodic instrument, adding harmonies, color, accents and off-rhythms to the recordings, as well as low-end support. "Stephen's music, in particular, was ideal for this," Eric remarks today. "It was a rare piece that didn't contain a surprise, melodically or harmonically, and Steve's songs, more mystical and dark, provided me further opportunity to be unorthodox." (Stephen & Eric record today as artists STEPHEN & THE SNAKE. Their newly released first CD single, Heat Lightning / Left Hand Right Hand, also on the Iris Music Group label, continues Stephen's mix of poetry, folk, blues, and jazz within mystical lyrical content.) Stephen describes his lyrics as "strange scenes, existential revelations within the poetry, like word-painting - surreal landscapes, metaphysical questions," as heard in Music Machine, Door Knob, Monkey Demon and Big Green Pearl, which contain vivid flashes of dreams and real-life possessions. Lucianne is a song about individualism, and It Gets Worse Every Time voices a young man's confused view of materialism. Eric, as a lyricist, is more romantic, pragmatic. "Roses is a song about choices," Eric says, "missed opportunities, lost love and regrets within a blend of sparse instrumentation - a lonely guitar, minimal bass and ambient sounds, which I continue today in my recordings with Stephen." The rest of the songs in the album are Martin's Congress Alley, an autobiographical description of a creative community he started in Worcester, MA, where Orpheus was born; the Orpheus hit Can't Find The Time; the live show-stopper Borneo; and the still popular She's Not There and Walk Away Renée. TRACK LISTING: Click on the song titles to hear audio clips Congress Alley Music Machine Can't Find The Time Door Knob Walk Away Renée She's Not There Borneo Roses It Gets Worse Every Time Monkey Demon Lucianne Big Green Pearl Version 2 Compilation and original songs produced by Alan Lorber. Physical CDs may be ordered from the Iris Music Group store and from amazon.com. Available for digital download from iTunes and amazon.com. First | Previous | Next | Last Return to IMG Catalog Orpheus Reborn Home Page