SEA OF JOY

By the time Tully recorded their second album, they'd lost the two members who were not followers of Meher Baba (their original singer and drummer), decided not to replace the drummer, and instead taken on two members of the prog-folk group Extradition. As a result, their music turned even more to the pastoral side, and lost nearly all remaining heavy rock elements. Sea of Joy is the soundtrack to a film - most of the tracks are therefore short functional snippets rather than complete-sounding pieces. Taken separately, they may seem to be a weak collection of pieces. Taken as a whole, the album succeeds in conjuring a meditative atmosphere, and a feeling of connectedness to nature. The weakest moment on the album is "Syndrone", a few minutes of faux-Indian noodling and percussion jamming. The best moments are: - any piece where Richard Lockwood has a flute solo ("Trinidad", "Thank You") - nearly any piece where Michael Carlos is on Hammond ("Sea of Joy" parts 1 & 2, "Brother Son" - not so much "Cat- Clarinet Mit Orgel" where he spends too long improvising on the same stepwise chord progression) - most especially, any piece foregrounding the gorgeous voice of Shayna Stewart ("Trinidad", "Thank You", "Softly Softly", "Down To The Sea").