BRILLIANT TREES

"Brilliant Trees" is the debut full-length studio album by UK artist David Sylvian. The album was released through Virgin Records in June 1984. After recording five studio albums and achieving healthy commercial success with Japan, Sylvian opted to start a solo career, after Japan disbanded in December 1982. Sylvian had already released a solo single (a collaboration with Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto titled "Bamboo Houses"/"Bamboo Music") while still a member of Japan, so it was no surprise that he wanted to pursue a solo career after Japan folded.

Stylistically the seven tracks on "Brilliant Trees" are jazzy, ambient pop/rock compositions, which are a natural succession of the music found on the last Japan album "Tin Drum" (1981), so the sound an style are not huge surprises if you´re familiar with the last couple of Japan albums. Former Japan members Richard Barbieri (synths/keyboards) and Steve Jansen (drums) also guests on the album, which doesn´t make the Japan similarities any less.

"Brilliant Trees" is a fairly varied album with both busier funky rhythm tracks like "Pulling Punches" and "Red Guitar", but also slow ambient melancholic tracks like "Nostalgia" and the closing title track (the latter style is the predomiant music style on the album). It´s an incredibly well produced release, which doesn´t reek 80s sound production, although some features (some of the synth sounds, the drum sound) do give it away, that the album was recorded in that music era. It´s a detailed and intriguing listen throughtout. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.