David Sylvian S/D

Ah, thanks damo, didn't pick that up.

Actually I meant to post another video, but am at work. It's David talking about all the musicians he worked with for this album.

Finally something to look forward to.

I played that video and—what is it, a promo? it's hard to tell—I actually hope the album doesn't have too much of that granular, burbling Fennesz sound in it. It worked once, brilliantly, but the minute I started watching the video I caught myself thinking "that's a bit of a dated sound, eh?" Maybe I have absurdly high expectations here, but some of that melodic software improv stuff hasn't aged all that well to my ears.

Sachiko M, though, is basically the anti-Fennesz though so I'm sure it will all come out balanced. Pity Ami Yoshida—Sachiko M's old partner in the delightful Cosmos—isn't onboard. Her chirping and retching noises + Sachiko's hiss and crackle would have been a beautiful voice/electronic dual counterpoint to the Sylvian croon + the Fennesz syrup.

I'm going to go run around in the yard for a minute.

fields of salmon, that video was fanmade. No clips from the album have surfaced online as far as I know.

Search song: Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit – The Librarian (feat. David Sylvian) *aka* Nine Horses - The Librarian.

did anyone hear When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima from 2007? one long ambient piece made up of field recordings made at naoshima. based on the collaborators alone i'm guessing it's pretty good

gahhhh when will Manafon LEAK goddamnit :(

did anyone hear When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima from 2007? one long ambient piece made up of field recordings made at naoshima. based on the collaborators alone i'm guessing it's pretty good

― damo tsu tsuki (r1o natsume), Sunday, August 9, 2009 11:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Love it! Haven't dound a copy of it myself, so have to do it with my illegal mp3. But it's great ~ stretching his common 'song' sound and length for an entire album. It's quite blissful.

dound=found

"Sachiko M, though, is basically the anti-Fennesz though so I'm sure it will all come out balanced. Pity Ami Yoshida—Sachiko M's old partner in the delightful Cosmos—isn't onboard. Her chirping and retching noises + Sachiko's hiss and crackle would have been a beautiful voice/electronic dual counterpoint to the Sylvian croon + the Fennesz syrup."

ha! someone should do a mashup of Ami's part of Soba to Bara with the Manafon backgrounds, Sobafon.

anyway, sadly for your plan, Sachiko and Fennesz don't overlap here. the individual personnel for each track are listed in a post at the link below, the only track Sachiko is on is the one I'm by far the most excited about, mostly for the personnel but also for the title:

the greatest living englishman (10:55)
music: akiyama/sachiko m/nakamura/yoshihide/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
electric and acoustic guitar (left channel): tetuzi akiyama
no-input mixer: toshimaru nakamura
sine wave sampler: sachiko m.
turntables, acoustic guitar (right channel): otomo yoshihide
piano: john tilbury
vocals: david sylvian

http://www.japansylvian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1671&start=30

that lineup is all kinds of amazing.

@ [email address removed] (r1o natsume)

Been trying to get back to you, but the ILX-mail robot continues to fail on me. Could you drop me an e-mail at [another mail removed] ?

Search song: Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit – The Librarian (feat. David Sylvian) *aka* Nine Horses - The Librarian.

I believe they're different versions, albeit not dramatically.

Sylvian's done some fantastic guest vocal appearances, search these recent ones:
Tweaker - Pure Genius
Fennesz - Transit
Blonde Redhead - Messenger
Takagi Masakatsu - Exit/Delete
Punkt - Angels
Arve Henriksen - Thermal

Also there's a recent Samadhi sampler called "The World Is Everything" with two great Sylvian tracks, "The World Is Everything" and "Sleepwalkers".

those two versions of the Librarian are actually pretty different, the one from Out in the Sticks has a much less straighforward rhythm, and the one on Nine Horses sounds more "normal". Although, the vocal track is identical in both.

world citizen is a really good track as well, although not exceptionally "challenging" like other recent sylvian songs.

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/sylvian_david/cover307.jpg

Gonna make a special point of buying the mag this month.

yeah me too - i haven't bought it for 3 years or so.

He looks like Sweeney Tood on that cover.

Todd, maybe.

or an RPG villain

yes definitely getting a sephiroth vibe from that cover. great photo

damo, saw my msg upthread? drop me a line

oh hey i just saw that thanks!

http://www.thewire.co.uk/files.php?file=1166&action=stream
small metal gods

I certainly didn't expect those harmonies at the end.

Awesome. Samples here (also awesome):

http://www.manafon.com/editions/

That deluxe edition looks beautiful, but oof, $85 + shipping!

I just watched/listened to "Small Metal Gods" and my conclusion is: "Please, not ANOTHER 'divorce album'!" David - I love you, man - but come oooon! That'll be three already: Nine Horses, Blemish, this one.

$85?? Pass.

Divorce album? I vaguely remember "Blemish" being ascribed to that period but I didn't realize Nine Horses was as well.

He looks like Momus again on the album sleeve.

For anyone who missed it, there's a good interview with Sylvian in the September edition of Mojo. The feature includes a cherishable mid-70s photo of David, Steve and Mick rehearsing in what looks to have been the Batts' living room.
It makes me sad that he now repudiates almost all his work with Japan. I for one still derive great pleasure from Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum.

Totally agree.

In other news I listened to the Manafon samples on the website and found them really irritating. Something about it just wasn't working for me. I have a feeling this album is going to divide opinions pretty severely.

Yeah, it seems like all the good parts are in the background... kind of marred by his aleatoric melodic humming.

The vocals on Blemish sounded pretty tuneless to me at first, 'little metal gods' is sounding more and more memorable as I listen again

I admired Blemish a lot, and there are some v good tracks on the 80s albums, but no matter how I try, the only one I really, really connect with is the Rain Tree Crow alb.

The vocals on Blemish sounded pretty tuneless to me at first, 'little metal gods' is sounding more and more memorable as I listen again

Yeah. It seems like he sits down and writes songs like everyone else, but then he subtracts all the musical information and leaves us with this elaborate vocal melody... and we have no idea what it's supposed to refer to. My ear naturally tries to ground the melody somewhere but it can't, and I guess I find that frustrating. It's as if Sylvian likes being the only one who knows what the melody actually refers to, and it sets up kind of an unpleasant power dynamic with his audience, like he's deliberately withholding information.

Yes, of course this is meant to be "difficult" music (and I like difficult music) but sometimes difficult music just doesn't work.

Thanks for the link to the samples. I loved Blemish, and I get the feeling this is going to be at least as good.

can't stream the other tracks because i'm on mac, but Little Metal Gods got me real psyched for this. the vocals seem very upfront in the mix but what else would you expect? also the making of-video of this could be really interesting.

first listen -- vocals are awfully loud
second listen -- really like to hear this without the vocals
third listen -- great record, vocals are fine, not an eai/erstwhile record and you can't listen to it that way, it's its own thing, huge chunks of it are really beautiful

it helps that i like david sylvian's lyrics, singing, and approach quite a bit

anxious to hear what jon abbey thinks

the second half of this, starting with the fifth track, might be the place to start if you're hoping to enjoy this based on prior enjoyment of erstwhile type stuff (keith rowe, polwechsel, etc).

i've been absolutely loving this record.

:-)

"anxious to hear what jon abbey thinks"

well, one thing is that listening via MP3 exaggerates the balance between Sylvian and the musicians, so listening to the CD or a lossless rip is definitely preferable, especially if that balance is bothering you (a complaint I've seen a bunch already). beyond that, I need more listens, but I will comment on this:

"the second half of this, starting with the fifth track, might be the place to start if you're hoping to enjoy this based on prior enjoyment of erstwhile type stuff (keith rowe, polwechsel, etc)."

I'd actually just skip the first two tracks, track 4 is the one with the Tokyo crew, and probably the most interesting musically to me.

small metal gods irritated me and I'm hardly every irritated by sylvian, I'm a huge fan. I fell asleep after that though, so I'll have to give it another listen tonight.

My review for the OC Weekly:

http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-09-17/music/cd-review-david-sylvian/

^^ nice description of how his voice is sounding.

I wanted to like this, but ugh.

While not particularly disrespectful of the musicians involved, it IS a David Sylvian album and it makes me wish David weren't... in it.

His vocals sound uncomfortably tacked on, frequently jarring. It's almost like he's parodying himself singing one of his vibrato-ey big ballads --- only without any real melodic variety to speak of. It may be his attempt to add an ~*improv*~ edge to the music, but imo it fails & the (many) beautiful moments never really get their chance to shine because of this.

I demand an instrumental version. kthxbye

Meantime a couple of folks noted errors with my AMM mentions so that'll hopefully be updated today!

well, while it's not strictly accurate to describe as "the amm saxophonist" (if anyone cld be called that it wld be lou gare) he has played with AMM every now and then, and he was generally thought to be a pretty gd fit w/ the group

but do you like the song with dalt and fratti

Ballad of a Deadman! Fantastic!

Really enjoying Sylvian at the moment - more the first disc of Victim of Stars than anything (I think of myself as more of a fan of disc two). No obvious reason for it.

Last year I rediscovered Gone to Earth after several decades of ignoring it. I know the other 80s albums well but for some reason that one never stuck with me back in the day... now it's by far my favorite.

It was my introduction to Sylvian and remains my sentimental favorite of his 80s work. The sidemen here—Wheeler, Fripp and Nelson in particular—are terrific.

wish he'd do another nine horses album

― akm, Tuesday, May 3, 2011 11:22 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Last year I rediscovered Gone to Earth after several decades of ignoring it. I know the other 80s albums well but for some reason that one never stuck with me back in the day... now it's by far my favorite.

― Kim Kimberly, Friday, January 2, 2026

One of my writing and before-bed albums.

Yeah it's kind of a 'hmm, something from Sylvian...that'll always do' album for me.

Sides 3/4 of Gone to Earth is easily one of the top five ambient albums ever made

Surprisingly, my introduction to Sylvian was seeing the Silver Moon video on VH1

It actually played?!

I recently dug out an ITV documentary on Now That's What I Call Music which I remembered from 2013, but what I didn't remember was Timmy Mallett, Dermot O'Leary and Dom Joly being made to listen to - and express bafflement at the inclusion of - "Red Guitar" at the end of Now 3, the given consummate example of 'obscure artsy fanbase-oriented top 30 hit included to recoup production losses that no one is going to remember today'. It's all over for you David, the voice of "Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Back Seat" only "vaguely" remembers you.

It did! I also saw it often.