DAVID SYLVIAN

The funky and the fretless bass of the first track identify immediately this album in its decade, but even if in the middle of the 80s, between the first notes we can appreciate how in advance Sylvian was. The jazzy chill-out of "The Healing Place" together with his baritone vocals, like a low pitched Bowie, would be more well placed in the 90s. Another thing that comes to mind is the ZEE underrated album. Respect to that album we have a very impressive lineup: Mel Collins and Fripp and his Frippertronics, above all.

The slow ambient jazz of "Laughter & Forgetting" features a flugelhorn, a sound that sends my mind to the atmosphere of Blade Runner Blues or Mark Isham's Tibet. Short and very nice.

"Before the Bullfight" starts with ambient electronics, on which the electronic drums first, then a clean jazz guitar seem to be just waiting for the flugelhorn in the background. After few less than three minutes the warm voice of Sylvian arrives. The song develops on a different chords sequence, but sometimes the flugelhorn comes back. About 10 minutes of chill-out, not properly "dark ambient", but there's some darkness inside, enhanced by the bass vocals.

The title track is the one I suppose Fripp is more responsible of. It's like the melody has been composed on a "normal" base, then the chords and the sounds have been "frippertroniced" to transform it into something different. I'm not sure about Fripp playing on this song, but he is in the album and I think to hear him here.

Another "long" track, for the album's standards, comes. Also "Wave" has some dissonances inside which give it a more avantgarde feeling repsect to just 80s darkness. This song reminds me of the late Rick Wright's efforts on Broken China. Regardless the similarities with an album that I love, this song is not really my fav.

"Riverman" proceeds on the same line. The lazy proceeding of percussion setup a dreamy environment. Taken along this is a good song, but the whole album is made of this dark chill-out and this makes it suitable as background music, except for the short flugelhorn intermissions. This is an instrument which surely adds value to all the song it's present in.

The first LP is closed by "Silver Moon" which is a more "normal" song. Less dark and more radio-friendly than the rest of the album it has an unusual quantity, for Sylvian, of major chords. Mel Collins is excellent as always on his sax.

The second LP is instrumental only, but this fact gives more room to the clean lead guitar. "The Healing Place" could have had lyrics, but this dark and slow blues is really more effective without. Fans of late Floyd and of Porcupine Tree can find this track very appealing. Surely a highlight.

"Answered Prayers" is very borderline with newage, as well as many other artists during those years. If it wasn't for the guitar I could think of Vangelis, Isham, or even Lucia Hwong.

"Where the Railroad Meets the Sea" is another slow bluesy track based on few guitar repeated notes. A bit too dark to be called newage.

"The Wooden Cross" Sounds like a Tangerine Dream track of the Pink period. I mean Zeit, mainly. Of course I like it.

It's followed by "Silver moon over sleeping steeples" which is more newage oriented, even though some dissonances makes it sound more like the already mentioned Lucia Hwong. It looks like we are used (I am at least), to call newage the ambient music when it's not dark.

"The following track "Camp fire : Coyote country" Is even more calm, positive and relaxing. It's strange thinking to how far this music is from what he was doing with Japan.

With a title like " A bird of prey vanishes into a bright blue cloudless sky" one could have expected something different, but the track is not bad. Still this positive ambient music. If you like Yoga or other kinds of meditation it's fine. For my tastes I'd prefer something more intriguing.

"Home" is leading us to the end of the second LP. Looking at the vinyl surface it appears quite slick. Who comes from the vinyl days knows what I mean. Not bad, really. Only this IS newage.

"Sunlight seen through towering trees" sounds newage even in the title. A good test for the pickups quality. I have the impression of a Shakuyaki below, adding an oriental touch in the second half of the track.

The only voices that can be heard on this LP are on the closing track: "Upon This Earth". It's a speech that combined with the repetitive chords is very pleasant. It reminds me of Vangelis on China but again also Lucia Hwong comes to mind. this is the best track of the second LP in my opinion and a perfect closer if you have been able to survive up to here.

Depending on your tastes you can love the first and hate the second or vice versa. Complexively I think a correct rating is 3 stars as none of the two albums is fundamental in its genre. And we are effectively speaking of two different albums.

David Sylvian leads, with their particular and unique voice and style, a refined set of songs inclined to ambient music, tinged with jazz and electronic. Its main partners are here percussionist Steve Jansen, also with his contribution on keyboards and Bernd Friedmann on toy piano, keyboards and synth ms 20, among others. At times the music becomes monotonous, with few variations. In others it is extremely nice and well orchestrated. In this second facet, are: Darkest Bird, A History of Holes, experimentation of Snow Borne Sorrow and Serotonin and beauty of The Day The Earth Stole Heaven and the sharp end of The Librarian, perhaps the best song. It is worth mentioning that the pace never stops being gentle and slow with no major leaks.

A great little instrumental album that confused many Sylvian fans back in '85.

Without doubt the most overlooked Sylvian album. This one trickles with Indonesian sweat as he continues directly from the last track on 'Brilliant Trees' from the previous year. Jon Hassell's flugelhorn sounds inspired, wrapping itself around Eastern vocals along with Steve Jansen's always foreign drum thumping.

For those wishing to hear more of Sylvian's first album - this is the one. It almost sounds like it should have been part of a double album.

'Steel Cathedrals' - the big 18min side two track is basically a forerunner to his work with Holger Czakay in '87. Only here it sounds far more Eastern and minimal. An Excellent recording throughout.

A fairly one dimensional and dreary album which, to call 'grey' would be giving porage a bad name. David Sylvian delivers his vocals here as though he's auditioning for the 'speaking clock'.

The addition of strings adds a certain degree of interest, but overall the structure is dreadful - lying scattered like a bag of sugar spilt over your kitchen floor.

The background sounds are excellent in an almost 'art concret' manner but the tunes, as such are awful. It's one of those beatless albums, with no drums, bass or guitar which I normally love, but here I'm left scratching my head in bewilderment.

Only the double tracked vocals help Sylvian out of the quicksand of this dirge. It may be a superbly clear and sharp recording, but guaranteed - you'll be left with absolutely nothing worth humming or whistling at the end of this listen. And that includes the 'bonus' instrumental cd which could have fitted on to the first if it weren't for the usual money making ploys.

Damn!, what's happened to Sylvian? He sounds like he really can't be bothered at all these days.

Seeing as we're going through a mini heat-wave here in Scotland, I thought I'd give this album an airing for the first time in 7 years. And you know, I'd forgotten how good this sounds compared with the tidal wave of ambient recordings that have been released since 1987.

Plight and Premonition is an excellent and instantly identifiable album that should be listened to on dark swelteringly hot nights. Entirely instrumental, but unlike its successor - this one is far more atmospheric and has a lot more depth and feel to it. And unlike most collaborations this sounds split 50/50 right down the middle in terms of input and resulting sound. It's a bit like a slightly more lively 'Atem' by Tangerine Dream. It floats along in a majestic manner as foreign radio snippets (clearly Czukay inspired) make brief appearances. Reverbed piano and prolonged spooky keyboard chords only add to the happiness I feel when I hear this.

Very different to Sylvian's first two vocal albums and a million miles from "Japan". It is short however, and you won't get any bonus tracks on the cd, which is probably a good thing as it's perfect in length and atmosphere just the way it is.

David Sylvian - Gone to Earth 2lp (1986)

Not my usual cup of tea, but since I'm a vinyl collector I can sometimes buy interesting records for less then a serious cup of coffee, so here it is. To be honest, I bought it because Robert Fripp (of King Crimson fame) and Mel Collins (King Crimson, Camel & others) play along on some tracks.

David Sylvian (ex-Japan) is a multi-instrumentalist and song-writer. Gone to Earth is a long album that features a slightly artistic form of wave or perhaps even new age music. Slow, abstract and bathing in atmospheres the music develops around minimal concepts that get pretty interesting in the end. The cool, soft voice of Sylvian completes the style. With some solo's of Fripp now and then tracks of lp1 can get quite interesting, though most tracks are good. None of them stand out, but that's part of the abstract wave sound I guess. On lp2 the tracks are instrumental, mostly based one a single idea that get's worked out and then fades away.

The interesting part of this album is not what it delivers in for example song-writing and musicianship, but what it leaves open. There some spaciousness in every composition that is hard to pin down. The music doesn't pretend to be the main attraction and is clearly made for relaxation and slowing down. In the mean while some very interesting atmospheres are created, mainly on lp1 I must say.

Conclusion. An abstract wave/new age record that I find useful because of it's relaxing effect. Nothing sound too important, and nothing bothers me either. Three stars, recommended to listeners of before-mentioned genres and Fripp-completionists.

Do my ears deceive me or is that the mighty Mick Karn on bass in the opener? Even the sleeve notes don't help... In my opinion he was the best wobbly bass player of all time, better than Pastorius and Pekka Pohjola, even though Mick plagiarised them both.

"Gone to Earth" sounds more experimental than 'Brilliant Trees' and is a far, far heavier album to listen to. After the pretty, but weird 'Laughter and Forgetting' which focuses on Sylvian's off key voice and a discordant piano everything collapses into a black hole in space... Starting with the miserable, but superb "Before the Bullfight' - all 10 minutes of it! - with it's heavy reverb and booming slow echoed drums - which sounds like the end of the world. This quickly splices to the highly unusual title track which has a tune sung by Sylvian where every musical note seems all over the place, random and is undercut by a truly mental growly Robert Fripp guitar.

Only recently have I come to realise that this is actually a very Prog album, something that had never struck me before with any of Sylvian's works.

'Wave' continues with the gloominess of the preceding tracks but once again has some superb drumming by his brother Steve Jansen. Flatline depressing vocals are accentuated with the inclusion of Fripp and his weird bendy springy sounds that sound nothing like the guitar he is playing. Fantastic!

The highlight has to be be 'Riverman' - almost a remnant of Japan's 'Sons of Pioneers' - the best track on 'Tin Drum' from '81. Bass heavy and slick, with a double vocal track by Sylvian and some Fripp tweakery in the background.

There's such an array of unusual tunes on this album that you won't be aware of until afterwards (like me 25 years later) where you think to yourself 'where the hell did those odd, weird out of place notes come from, and why do they fit?'

The only let down is 'Silver Moon' which by itself would have been okay, but is lost in a sea of magnificence... drowned out by continual beauty from beginning to end,

The second half of 'Gone to Earth' is instrumental with Fripp, Sylvian and Bill Nelson at the helm. Some of which is just utterly beautiful: 'Answered Prayers' and; Wooden Cross' to name but two. These last 40 minute sound like being stuck on a desert island with no means of escape, where you just say to yourself... 'Bugger'

Sometimes words can't do justice to an album of such perfection.

Secrets of the Beehive is a tranquil half hour of light progressive pop music. The husky lead vocals provide an agreeable contrast with the minimalistic and feathery instrumentation. Despite its brevity, the album can get sleepy and less engaging toward the end; it is dreamy and inoffensive throughout. In sum, Secrets of the Beehive is darkly sweet but lacks sting.

"September" A quiet, piano-led opener introduces the listener to Sylvian's hushed vocal style and mellowness.

"The Boy with the Gun" Sylvian's gently hoarse voice drifts over a thudding double bass and calm symphonic textures.

"Maria" "Maria" is a swirling, hypnotic bit of music.

"Orpheus" An acoustic pop song in 3/4 time makes up the fourth track.

"The Devil's Own" Quiet piano is juxtaposed with tranquil singing that leads into a lovely, more orchestral passage.

"When Poets Dreamed of Angels" The primary instrument here is the classical guitar, which provides several plucked sections that complement the vocals well.

"Mother and Child" More of a smoky vocal jazz number, this one has Sylvian crooning over an almost lonely bass. Some lead piano adds further jazzy textures.

"Let the Happiness In" An unassuming song consisting of atmospheric pads and hand percussion, this piece contrasts with the others by virtue of some tasteful trumpet in the backdrop.

"Waterfront" Again, this is a pleasant piece of music, but the quietude may be too much for the album.

You would think that by paring down the songs, playing them with a live ferocity, and trading Rick Marotta (the Ringo Starr of the prog world) with Pat Mastelotto, and adding Michael Brook, you would greatly improve the quality over the studio version. Well, yes and no.

The songs did sound better live. Robert. Fripp really did seem to be enjoying this group (that's possibly why Fripp, Trey Gunn and Mastelotto joined Adrian Belew to form the next King Crimson a few years later). And without the too long endings, the songs are more enjoyable.

The reason I give this album the same rating as the studio album is first, Mastelotto appears to be hanging back throughout the album. We know he could play more adventurous beats. Perhaps he didn't want to show up Marotta. Second, the mix is disappointing. Trey Gunn in particular gets buried most of the time. As a bass player, and a fan of Gunn, it brings the album down.

But still, Fripp plays some wild Frippery here, and even the hip-hop styled Darshan is made listenable.

David Sylvian's pairing with Robert Fripp was a great move for his music. While Sylvian's solo albums are nice, none of the albums I've heard had any element of power to them. Here, right off of the heels of "The Construction Of Light", Fripp plays with an energy we havent heard from him since the seventies.

The songs are mostly a mix of Sylvian's rhythmic adventures and Fripp's (and Gunn's) wild soloing. Theresult is the ballsiest music you can find from Sylvian. The first five tracks are all excellent. From God's Monkey through 20th Century Dreaming we get some fine wordplay from Sylvian, some outrageous guitar work from Fripp, and cool rhythms from Gunn & drummer Jerry Marotta. My only complaint on these tracks is that Firepower, as good a song as it is, and 20th Century Dreaming meander a bit too long at the end.

The last two track are something of a letdown. Darshan, at 17 minutes, is way too long. The song itself is basically a hip-hop style rhythm, with some Frippery over the top. The lyrics are minimal, and the song goes absolutely nowhere. And Bringing Down The Light is just another track of Fripp's ambient noodling.

But five great tracks out of seven adds up to a good four star album.