Black Ships by Eye

Vinyl available from Carbon Records:

https://carbon-records.bandcamp.com/album/black-ships

Black Ships is a triumph. Clutching the thread of the moment in the face of adversity and from that thread making something utterly, absolutely alive. A surging triumphant affirmation of art as a tool of human agency and self-definition. A celebration of being truly, radically present.

As Stapleton's illness progressed, instead of lamenting what doors had closed to him, Stapleton with the truest, highest understanding of what free improvisation suggests, asked himself what doors remained open and walked through them. Stapleton entered a grand tradition of master improvisers for whom changes in physical ability were approached with the same practical acuity that a great improviser approaches their instrument with every time they play: what are the tools at hand? And what can be said with them? This was not a leap of faith, but an understanding – an understanding based on a lifetime spent in love with the promise of art. This approach is the highest application of the practice of improvised music. In his ability to turn a physical limitation into the driver of avenues previously unexplored, Peter Stapleton resides in the company of such masters as Masahiko Togashi, Derek Bailey, Linda Sharrock, and Keith Rowe.

And as a result of this we have with us this gift of an album, Eye's final: Black Ships. But the truth is, Peter had been exploring drum-less electronic abstraction for two decades – his drumming was so startling that few noticed his electronic tendencies. Starting in 1995, Peter began to play synth and radio in both his eponymous trio with Kim Pieters and Bruce Russell and in the glacially delicate band Rain. From 1996 onwards Peter played electronics of some kind on every improvised project. This has been overlooked because Peter's completely singular drumming has been an instantly recognizable part of the New Zealand underground since the late 70's. Also the mysterious smoke-and-mirrors aspect of many of his bands, Eye included, where wisps and washes of sound interact in the air, makes tracing their instrumental origins confusing. Eye presented a perfect avenue for Stapleton to lean into this aspect, for the final chapter in a body of work whose entire trajectory resonated with the same kind of driving urgency felt so clearly in the divining rod of his drums, dragging us all behind it.

And so in Black Ships we have the pleasure of hearing a direction in Stapleton's work at length that was only previously hinted at. Languid pools of mystery and menace circle nebulously. Guitar and synth spread and flatten, slipping in to the cracks of your surroundings as if they've been waiting for the tension to let up for just this very purpose. Porteous' guitar continuums draw one into the frosty warehouse chilblains of Dunedin. Practice spaces from which the chill never departs unless the band generates sufficient energy. The cool darkness, the intensity, the gothic drama – without the relentless forward motion of Stapleton's drums – it's all still here. The only tragedy is that it makes one realize how much ground Eye still had to cover.

-- Andrew Scott

Tracklist

1.	Black Ships	6:35

2.	Quiet in the Village	3:41

3.	Black Ships II	11:05

4.	Black Ships Blues	12:55

5.	Every Day	6:58

Credits

released December 5, 2025

Peter Stapleton -- electronics, vocals
Peter Porteous -- guitar, singing bowl
Jon Chapman -- synth, mix

Mastering -- de novo

License