David Sylvian S/D

Press waffle sent out just now:

On Manafon, Sylvian pursues "a completely modern kind of chamber music. Intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical." In sessions in London, Vienna, and Tokyo, Sylvian assembled the world's leading improvisers and innovators, artists who explore free improvisation, space-specific performance, and live electronics. From Evan Parker and Keith Rowe, to Fennesz and members of Polwechsel, to Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide, the musicians provide both a backdrop and a counterweight to his own vocal performances - which, minus one instrumental, are nakedly the center of each piece.

Sylvian's voice has never been so dominant or so striking, and his resonant tenor and deliberate vibrato captivate the listener from the start of "Small Metal Gods." Its prominence would come off as egotistical - except that each performance is an exercise in self-exposure, and each character study is written in the third-person, to allow the maximum detachment.

"It's like a one-man monologue in which every change of light and backdrop is crucial to the carrying of the central performance. It's an ensemble work even though there is a central performance." Though the setlist is all ballads, romanticism is out, and no percussion provides a pulse. All the melody and rhythm rest in the voice. Aside from overdubs of acoustic guitar or John Tilbury's somber, Feldman-esque phrases on piano, Sylvian enhanced but did not reconfigure the improvisations, giving himself just the skeletons of songs to guide him.

When an instrument locks with the lyrics - as when Fennesz introduces a texture that clinches the disaster of "Snow White in Appalachia" - the moment is indescribable; when it dissolves, Sylvian doesn't pause. Neither a complement nor a Greek chorus, the instrumentalists maintain an ambiguous attitude to the singer, and what he's saying. When Sylvian's delivery implies sympathy or mockery on "The Greatest Living Englishman," the music is cantankerous but dry, and Otomo Yoshihide's abrupt snippets of classical vinyl may or may not share the joke.

The closing track, "Manafon," depicts the British poet R. S. Thomas. Sylvian explains that it is "a description of a man of faith, who struggles with that faith, who imposes an order on the external world in the hope of finding it internally. A man who embraces the morals and values of his faith and lives by them but who also struggles with the silence that burns inside his own heart and mind. God's silence. He's a man out of time who begins to look, on the surface, more like some tragicomic figure as time passes. While he seems to be an insufferable individual in many ways there's a quixotic element in his quest for knowledge, for upholding morals and values that even he struggles with when it comes to believing in their efficacy."

Manafon's contradictions lay at the heart of its excellence. It's driven not just by the tension between improvisation and composition, frontman and ensemble, or in Sylvian's words, "intimacy and solitude." Manafon captures the dilemma of a man who studies himself clincically, but cannot truly understand himself; who's disillusioned, but maybe laughably so. The most common sensation, which hangs in almost every note, is a feeling of suspense. The sole instrumental - to which Sylvian also contributes - sounds less like a performance, and more like a wellspring of possibilities.

The album ends simply on a phrase and a breath. But there's a happier ending in its other theme: Manafon also explores the creative process. Intuition drew Sylvian to these pieces and these players, and the surprises they bring: a cello visiting like a warm hand on a forehead, the unpredictable use of unadulterated sine waves, the brassy path of Evan Parker's soprano sax solo. Manafon has a forbidding core, but aesthetically, each piece is an engrossing discovery.

"Maybe I'm attracted to the stories of individuals who search for meaning on their own terms," says Sylvian. "But what I'm fascinated by is the devotion to a creative discipline. The meaning with which the work imbues the life regardless of its reception and, to a certain extent, its importance."

This new one's killing it. Reminds me a touch of the start to Laughing Stock in its fragmentary/rough-edged feel, but maintained and developed in different directions throughout the album, while Sylvian's always a calm center.

often he's a calm centre to generally calm songs. nice to hear that there's a bit of a rough dynamic to this one.

He's certainly been playing around more with that over this decade but this is probably his most consistent work on that front. It's not the songs are explosive -- they're understated but very unsettled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J2IkSNO2Bo
:O

Wow Ned, that sounds great! Can't wait.

That video alone... great, great stuff.

Looking forward to this a lot. Loved what the Polwechsel guys did with Dean Roberts (i.e. Autistic Daughters).

am i missing something? that video is just the live version of "a fire in the forest"

yes that's what i'm hearing.

psyched about this

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

10 CD, post Virgin Records set on the way!

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/david-sylvian-samadhisound-2003-2014-do-you-know-me-now

Does he do anything anymore but stuff his old records in fancier and fancier boxes?

He sometimes reissues albums on vinyl with ugly new covers.

He kind of fascinates me as a person. Isn’t he really into gurus and new age stuff like Carlos Santana?

The lead track on Manofon, "Small Metal Gods", suggested that he had grown disenchanted with his spiritual practice.

if instagram is anything to go by, it looks like he and Lucrecia Dalt are in a relationship.

Lucrecia My Reflection

Had not heard of her, I must admit, but to judge by the Wiki page, she sound intersting...?

her new album ‎¡Ay! is wonderful

If things go south with her, he's got a readymade cover version at hand with Blood, Sweat and Tears' "Lucretia Mac Evil" to fit on his next version of blemish.

xpost

Cool, will check it out

i'd love it if they collaborated on some music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5vSkWXu-Qo

For those of us that don’t speak Japanese or have time to listen to 45 minutes, what is that?

It’s Sylvian on a Japanese radio show in 1984 playing some of his favourite music.

Apologies, throughout the 1980s (and perhaps after idk) Ryuichi Sakamoto had a radio show called Sound Street, this is Sylvian guesting on the show with Peter Barakan acting as a translator.

He kind of fascinates me as a person. Isn’t he really into gurus and new age stuff like Carlos Santana?

― beamish13, Thursday, June 22, 2023 5:50 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I do spend a curious amount of time wondering what his living room looks like. (Apologies if I've mentioned this before).

probably not someone who eats cheetos on a white sofa while playing xbox but you never know

I imagine a real but somehow *arty* fire. Not clutter. A large artwork - could be a painting, maybe a photograph - that might be construed as "slightly rude" but which he explains as an appreciation of "the female form"?

A couple of years back (before Ryuichi S. passed) I said something on the occasion of his birthday about how given his current wizard look I imagined him living in snowy Japanese mountains somewhere, occasionally sending Sakamoto messages via wild foxes.

i'm sorry but i'm dying at "a real but somehow 'arty' fire"

I can't believe that there's not more speculation about Sylvian's lounge.

I’m assuming beamish meant Carlos Castaneda?? Can see Sylvian appreciating some Santana tho (and I can hear his vocal on “smooth”)

beamish was referring to Carlos Santana being a big follower of Sri Chinmoy

LOL @ Sylvian in place of Thomas on "Smooth"--it's true, the hook melody would unfortunately work for him (but only if "or else forget about it" is followed by some tasteful shred-glitching c/o add'l guest cameo by Christian Fennesz)