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“O Lord, open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim Your praise” (Psalm 51:15)

Young Oceans has been, from the start, a deeply gratifying and enlightening project.  I’d like to believe that we’ve approached art for art’s sake at our best moments, and I hope to keep pushing in that direction.  So it's been a bonus to hear from listeners around the world who have stumbled upon the music and felt a personal connection with these songs.

The impetus for the first Young Oceans album was to take songs that were written for my church community and arrange them as a meditative soundscape.  As we’ve progressed through ‘Advent’ and now 'I Must Find You’, the aesthetic has admittedly moved even further afield.  Ironically, one of the most consistent requests we have received over the years has been for help in adapting the songs for use in the local church setting.    

Cue several seasons of fits, starts, lengthy philosophical conversations, and artistic self-loathing.  Eventually and thankfully, we connected with a talented new friend named Jonny Macintosh.  Jonny helped us cast a vision forward: a group of outside vocalists capturing an album of songs that could be a resource for Christian communities.   Simple, humble progressions flowing underneath a wave of human voices… other people’s voices.  As Jonny put the album in motion, a humbling list of artists expressed interest in being involved and, all in, close to 30 people lent their musical talents to the project.

It was my middle school music teacher who first taught me that, compared to any other other instrument, the human voice is the most dynamic, versatile and fundamental.  Anyone who’s sung a hymn in church or a pop song in the shower knows that something mystical happens when your voice box resonates and stretches and forms a wild melody.  Something even more profound occurs when we sing as a group, crying out together with songs of faith, longing, praise and lament.

I don’t claim for one second to have cracked the code on how to write songs for the Church to sing.  Writers across the ages that have already provided enough songs to last a lifetime.  This is just our small attempt at joining that great chorus and we hope it blesses you richly.    

- Eric Marshall, Brooklyn NY, 2016

Open the Eyes of My Heart

Paul Baloche

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