David Sylvian S/D

Just... wow.

Can anyone find David's statement regarding Mick's death? I recall it was touching but can't find it online.

Dammmmn

SNB's reply. supposedly DS deleted his own original statement.

Hi David Sylvian - I love that you wrote that reply to my piece. I value your viewpoint and your memories of the situation. You're right I'm a storyteller; I enjoy nothing more than good raconteuring but try always to keep to the truth. Truths, of course, can differ from person to person but we should all do our best to write with honesty. In the course of managing a band many things are said to the individuals involved - to comfort, to cajole, to calm, to inspire - but in the end the manager's principal job is to keep the band productively together as long as possible, and if that fails then to try and help each of them on a path to a solo career. I thought I did pretty well at the first thing, not so good at the second. I'm sure your memories are correct for you, you have too much integrity for them not to be, and mine are correct for me. I remember only good times managing Japan, and much good humour.

Richard Barbieri's captured but also deleted comment on that thread is also worth reading.

his comment on the original post by SNB, that is.

where could that be read?

https://i.imgur.com/IjPPK8g.jpg

thankyou

Japan are like the last band I expected to have lots of drama kicked up years later on facebook.

Barbieri has always come across like a really good guy btw. I read an interesting interview with him recently. He sounds pretty broke considering he was in two fairly huge bands (Japan and Porcupine Tree) but also not at all bitter about things.

SNB never lets accuracy get in the way of a good story - but he can be very entertaining.

More music managers should follow his example of posting reviews of their most memorable meals:
http://www.simonnapierbell.com/restaurants.htm

Wow that was illumanating..,Sylvian seems to be quite confessional of late like he’s unburdening himself...maybe it comes as you get older...finally got round to listening to the tracks Gerald sent me...had most of them but a few gaps...the new tracks that appeared on his soundcloud account are great particularly ‘Modern Interior’ but ‘Blue Of Noon’ is sounding lovely especially this time of year...wish he release a new album of song based material...the one offs he’s released (If you think you know me now, I should not dare, A certain slant of light) are among his best work in years...

Barbieri has always come across like a really good guy btw. I read an interesting interview with him recently.

Don't suppose you have a link to that?
There's so much tension apparent Japan's best material. I had always assumed that it was because Sylvian was a harsh taskmaster, but the dysfunction described above throws a whole new light on the band's dynamics.

guessing this was the interview

Japan are like the last band I expected to have lots of drama kicked up years later on facebook.

You're kidding me, right!? Out of all of the bands of that era, Japan and Bauhaus would be top of the list.

Oh yeah

BTW to tide us all over while we we wait for another release, I just came upon this incredible song from his 2003-4 Fire in the Forest tour that is otherwise unreleased:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9vybTMXsFg&feature=youtu.be

It’s an amazing performance – and seemingly a really raw take on his divorce. Among my favorite things he’s done post-Blemish.

I'm getting an error with that link. What is the track/performance?

Just a random anecdote: A few weeks ago I was in a bar in Roppongi that seemed to be dedicated to and frequented by people who enjoyed early 80's music. The bartender decided to throw on something decidedly not early 80's: 'Adolescent Sex' by Japan. When I expressed my delight that I was actually hearing ANYONE EVER playing and enjoying this album in public, we sat and listened to the whole thing on a fantastic sound system. Such a wonderful little moment of life.

This this:

https://youtu.be/I9vybTMXsFg

It’s Wasn’t I Joe.

is that Ryoji Ikeda?

Masakatsu Takagi on live video projections. It was just DS and Steve Jansen playing the music.

Wasn't I Joe is a total classic.

His best unreleased track?

If not, it's damn close.

It's terrific. I'm still holding out some hope that one day we'll get to hear Sylvian's "watery, slowed-down" version of Propaganda's "Duel" that may or may not only exist in Paul Morley's head. (During PM's brief attempt to get Sylvian to produce them; he wrote the essence of p-Machinery, played on it, but that was about it).

Holy cow, new unheard Sylvian from one of my favorite periods! Thanks for posting this, any other unreleased gems floating around the ether?

Also, where's the sample from?

a beckett play, Eh Joe

yes, this is absolutely one of his best unreleased songs (though I guess that DVD of the performance was an official release? dunno. no idea if a studio version of this was ever attempted). It's also the most incredibly sad and depressing thing Sylvian ever recorded

why is The Healing Place from Gone to Earth the most listened to David Sylvian track on Spotify? was it in a movie or a tv show?

Inclusion on a Spotify playlist.
I think there are a couple of chill instrumentals w disproportionate play counts in his top 10, right?

yes, i wondered about that. I've only just started using spotify so i'm not sure how all of that works.

Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeple has even more plays in the US. And I was asking myself just the same question this morning.

Happy 60th, Sylvo!

the RSD reissue of Dead Bees on a Cake with tracks he put on Everything and Nothing goes a long way toward redefining that album IMO, though it's weird he chose a photo of him an Ingrid for the cover; I know it's their 'love' album but given how awful the divorce sounded on Blemish...maybe he's feeling nostalgic. Anyway, the E&N tracks were so strong they really balance out the duffers here like "Krishna Blue". And let no one ever say the man doesn't know how to end an album: Darkest Dreaming is one of his very best songs.

Dead Bees on a Cake is one of the worst album title I've ever heard.

s

well true but the album is better than the title

they really balance out the duffers here like "Krishna Blue"

Totally disagree there. I'm a massive fan of everything Sylvian did & rank Krishna Blue as one of his very best songs.

I too think KB is one of his best, but really, not much sense in personal taste battles anyway. A good album is a good album. You may like one song more than another, but if you’ve lived long enough with it, one song leads to another there, so all will be good in the end.

I love the title, I think it’s terrific and suits the music to a T, pretty much as is always the case with Sylvian. He explained why he chose it well enough in period interviews some 20 years ago.
When the cd first came out, I was sorely disappointed - it took years to come around on it. I remember back then I thought the title and the original cover were the best things about it, and that they deserved better music.

Darkest Dreaming is one of his very best songs.

― akm,

Nice to see you single out Darkest Dreaming. Sometimes I think it might be my favourite song he's ever recorded, including Japan.

one thing to note though is that this RSD pressing is fucked, there are no fill issues on many of them (including my side 2). don't know if universal will take them back or not, but considering I paid thirtyfive pounds for it I hope so.

I remember back then I thought the title and the original cover were the best things about it, and that they deserved better music.

It's a constant ongoing argument I have with myself what I think David Sylvian's best is. The choice always changes, but the three things that are always in consideration are: Secrets of the Beehive, Rain Tree Crow, and Dead Bees on a Cake.

beehive vs gone to earth has been the eternal internal argument for me

i think "a fire in the forest" out-darkest-dreamings "darkest dreaming" for me

I sometimes think of Rain Tree Crow as Sylvian's attempt to make Laughing Stock.

"i think "a fire in the forest" out-darkest-dreamings "darkest dreaming" for me"

yeah those are the two closers I was thinking of. sublime.

I sometimes think of Rain Tree Crow as Sylvian's attempt to make Laughing Stock.

It was released a few months before Laughing Stock though. I think of it as more DS bringing his improv/chance approach from the Czukay sessions into his old band and seeing where that went. With a few gorgeous, conventionally constructed songs in there too.

to me it sounds much more like music in between ambient and world in the vein of what eno, byrne, gabriel, hassell etc. were doing in the 80s. "laughing stock" is a completely different beast i think. it has got this holy & spiritual vibe which i do not feel in "rain tree crow".

Huh. I bought RTC on release but only got into LS a few years later - shows what I know!
And yeah I remember the press and the liner notes being big on the improvised nature of the sessions. A pretty interesting way to reform a band, can't think of anyone else who did it that way.
And agreed, Alex, LS is the vision of a seer, whereas RTC is more abstract musings. Sylvian has always been exquisitely emotionally guarded, part of the allure I guess.

Still think the albums are in the same sonic territory, albeit polished for RTC and raw for LS.

https://www.groenland.com/product/david-sylvian-holger-czukay-plight-premonition-flux-mutability-2lp/