I was jolted from my David Sylvian coma yesterday with the arrival of an email touting a new BSOG of Sylvian’s Samadhisound projects in an elaborate [how could it be any other way?] ten disc set entitled “2003-2014 Do You Know Me Now?” Of course the end result is another lavishly designed [with book, of course] Sylvian art bomb ready to detonate in a few weeks, on August 4th, 2023.
I was in a David Sylvian coma because really, for the last 15 years, I’ve not been able to follow Sylvian as he’s driven deeper into improvisation as his muse. It’s not that I dislike improvisation. Far from it. In the right hands, its a peak musical experience, but here’s where I diverge from the path he’s been following for the last 20 years. I feel that improvisation is a discipline that seasoned musicians at the top of their form can practice effectively.
In other words, the old “you’ve got to know the rules before you can break them” scenario. And let’s not kid ourselves. JAPAN [and by extension, Sylvian as well] were famous for being completely untrained musicians. That they scaled the heights they they did was purely down to having excellent taste and a diligent work ethic. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what makes for great music, with enough play-factor to mitigate some of the hard work, naturally.
When I first bought the “Blemish” album of 2003 [it’s the first disc in this ten disc set], I had the wind knocked out of me by how tough it was to make it all the way through the disc. It wasn’t hitting any pleasure centers, and it was giving a wide berth to those special pleasure centers in my brain that actually get stimulated by having to work to achieve their rewards…just not having to work as hard as they were being asked to do!
There comes a certain point where the underlying structure of music collapses and I can no longer recognize it as music. And for me that point occurred on “Blemish.” Which still shocks me because the Sylvian solo career leading to that point had been sterling to my ears. 1999’s “Dead Bees On A Cake” was an entrancing project that I could hardly believe fed in any way into his next move with “Blemish.” Of course, he was divorced by that point, which had to have an impact on Sylvian’s state of mind. The last twenty years have seen him fall prey to physical and psychic damage that suggests to me that this wrapping up of the twenty years of his label might be the finale to his musical career. After all, Samadhisound has been reissuing projects already made and mainly issuing books in the last nine years.
I can say with certainty that the Nine Horses album of 2005, “Snow Borne Sorrow” was a spectacular success; Sylvian collaborating with other musicians in compositions which were written down and worked out in advance of recording. But the huge disparity between that album and “Blemish” had left me gun-shy to plunk down for any more Sylvian material that was obviously borne of improvisational origins. The instrumental albums he had made with Holger Czukay and members of Can in the 80s were one thing; he was doing no singing and these are enjoyable plunges into deep mood. After all, if Can can’t improvise an album with Sylvian, who could? Where Sylvian misses my target is when he attempts to improvisationally create vocal material. Even so, I can recall the pit in my stomach when hearing about his album “When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima;” all 70 minutes and one track of it.
As usual, I’ve not heard the first note from eight of the ten discs here, so maybe I need to get out of my cave and sample some of the material that’s out there on iTunes and the like. [Monk does this] Well, as I suspected. “When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima” in its 90 second excerpt sounded like a field recording; not my thing at all! And yet this box’s title track, a single in 2013 and included on the compilation that was disc four, was actually quite beautiful. So therein lay the full spectrum of Mature Period David Sylvian. Let’s see what the full package entails.
CD 1: Blemish – David Sylvian
- Blemish (13:42)
- The Good Son (5:25)
- The Only Daughter (5:28)
- The Heart Knows Better (7:51)
- She Is Not (0:45)
- Late Night Shopping (2:54)
- How Little We Need To Be Happy (3:22)
- A Fire In The Forest (4:14)
CD 2: The Good Son Vs. The Only Daughter – The Blemish Remixes – David Sylvian
- The Only Daughter: Remixed by Ryoji Ikeda (5:49)
- Blemish: Remixed by Burnt Friedman (4:50)
- The Heart Knows Better: Remixed by Sweet Billy Pilgrim (5:29)
- A Fire In The Forest: Remixed by Readymade FC (5:05)
- The Good Son: Remixed by Yoshihiro Hanno (4:33)
- Late Night Shopping: Remixed by Burnt Friedman (2:51)
- How Little We Need To Be Happy: Remixed by Tatsuhiko Asano (4:35)
- The Only Daughter: Remixed by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré (5:28)
- Blemish: Remixed by Akira Rabelais (10:10)
CD 3: Snow Borne Sorrow – Nine Horses
- Wonderful World (6:02)
- Darkest Birds (5:03)
- The Banality of Evil (7:59)
- Atom and Cell (7:06)
- A History of Holes (8:02)
- Snow Borne Sorrow (6:23)
- The Day The Earth Stole Heaven (3:19)
- Serotonin (5:54)
- The Librarian (9:01)
CD 4: Do You Know Me Now? – David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto / Nine Horses
- World Citizen (6:46)
- World Citizen – I Won’t Be Disappointed (6:06)
- World Citizen – Ryoji Ikeda remix (4:59)
- Money For All (4:08)
- Get The Hell Out (5:36)
- The Banality of Evil – Burnt Friedman remix (6:48)
- Wonderful World– Burnt Friedman remix (7:04)
- Birds Sing For Their Lives (7:02)
- Serotonin – Burnt Friedman remix (4:51)
- Money For All – Version (4:00)
- Get The Hell Out – Burnt Friedman remix (5:02)
- When Monday Comes Around (5:58)
- Do You Know Me Now? (4:20)
- Where’s Your Gravity? (5:37)
CD 5: When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima – David Sylvian
- When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima (70:00)
CD 6: Manafon – David Sylvian
- Small Metal Gods (5:48)
- The Rabbit Skinner (4:41)
- Random Acts of Senseless Violence (7:06)
- The Greatest Living Englishman (10:54)
- 125 Spheres (0:29)
- Snow White in Appalachia (6:35)
- Emily Dickinson (6:25)
- The Department of Dead Letters (2:25)
- Manafon (5:22)
CD 7: Died In The Wool – Manafon Variations – David Sylvian
- Small Metal Gods – Died In The Wool – Version (5:09)
- Died In The Wool (6:03)
- I Should Not Dare ( for N.O) (3:24)
- Random Acts of Senseless Violence – Died In The Wool version (6:24)
- A Certain Slant of Light ( for M.K.) (3:28)
- Anomaly at Taw Head (5:06)
- Snow White in Appalachia – Died In The Wool version (5:59)
- Emily Dickinson – Died In The Wool Version (3:35)
- The Greatest Living Englishman – Coda (3:06)
- Anomaly at Taw Head ( A Haunting) (3:12)
- Manafon – Died In The Wool version (4:05)
- The Last Days of December (6:16)
CD 8: When We Return You Won’t Recognise Us – David Sylvian
- When We Return You Won’t Recognise Us (18:15)
CD 9: Uncommon Deities – Jan Bang & Erik Honoré with David Sylvian / Sidsel Endresen / Arve Henriksen
- The God of Single Cell Organisms (3:37)
- The God of Sleeplessness (4:29)
- The God of Silence (4:19)
- The God of Smaller Gods (4:04)
- The God of Small Caresses (5:51)
- The God of Black Holes (3:57)
- The God of Adverbs (4:20)
- The Ruminative Gap (3:18)
- The God of Crossroads (3:19)
- The God of Tiny Island (5:06)
- The God of Gradual Abdication (5:27)
- I Swallowed Earth for This (3:18)
CD 10: There’s A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight – David Sylvian / Franz Wright / Christian Fennesz
- There’s A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight (64:24)
Phew. That’s a lot of Sylviania. The box is available in CD or LP versions and the CD version is £143.99 or in a deluxe edition with an autographed art card by the designer, Chris Bigg of 23 Envelope fame, for a scant £2 more! On the face of it, I’d say… “treat yourself!” Go for the deluxe CD package at only £2.00 more…except that as of right now it is sold out! Though it is not shocking that the notion of a Sylvian autographed edition didn’t occur to the artist. The package is in a 10″ x 10″ slipcase with three folios of CDs and a hardbound book with a hundred pages of Bigg-designed content examining the Samadhisound aesthetic in a way that only reinforces my suspicion that this core dump of twenty years of music is the possible closing chapter to the David Sylvian story. At least in regards to music.
I’m shocked that there is not also an LP edition as well with the dubious bonus of it containing less of the music than in the CD edition, and with not-at-all inconvenient and unsettling side breaks in the 64 and 70 minute recordings. At the very least, I can imagine this set selling out and becoming highly coveted in the aftermarket. The man has cultivated a deepcult audience over the last 45 years and if you are still a member of that set then D.J. hit that button. I’m still unsure of what side of the dividing line I sit on these days.
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Post-Punk Monk 
I remember being pretty shocked by Blemish at first, but I liked it. You might try the remixes, which add some musicality to the songs. You might also try Manafon, in which he surrounds himself with veterans of the British improvisational and free jazz scene, and is a superior manifestation of what he was trying to do on Blemish. The remix album is pretty good, too, and I say that as somewhat who dislikes the very concept of remixes for something other than fixing a bad mix the first time around.
The one track albums have Sylvian reciting poetry over ambient improv. Not to my taste, frankly. So I don’t think I need this box.
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Michael Toland – Every time I have tried to listen to “Blemish” I regretted it. That’s about four times.
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>a superior manifestation of what he was trying to do on Blemish
Blemish was all glitch electronics, while Manafon is all acoustic musicians. So it’s pretty different. But yeah, there’s a philosophical continuation there in his determination to escape anything resembling 20th century popular music.
Then again, Kraftwerk had the same idea, and they ended up reinventing and absolutely influencing the pop music of the last 30 years of that century. Sylvian’s influence, so far, has been pretty much zero.
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I’m a Sylvian fan and stumped up for the autographed set yesterday when I got the email about it. Shocked it’s sold out that quickly!
Although I have just about everything here (the collector bug again). Not exactly great value but it appears to be beautifully designed and will only increase in value. I certainly share the opinion that his vocal improvs are not his best work – “There’s A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight” being the nadir.
Still, it’s a great set and hopefully it’s merely a summation of the Samadhisound years and not the end.
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Dave Turner – Then if you acted yesterday, you are a wise man, sir! I was shocked too. Maybe a hundred copies with the card? So that was Franz Wright speaking on ““There’s A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight?” I sure hope that was the nadir. Ghastly! And CDs of that are going for way too much money!
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Agreed. I only managed to get “Wandermüde” when it was reissued recently by the German label Grönland Records. Prices for these later CDs are ridiculous and certainly not based on the musical content…
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Post-Punk Monk, I’m with with you on a lot of what you say here. The Samadhisound years with David Sylvian were suddenly a mixed bag and I went from buying everything he put out because it never failed to delight and creatively engage, to eyeing his new releases with some cautiousness (would they have that awful, awful Derek Bailey torturing our brains his atonal sand-in-the-eye, rusty, played-out-of-tune “guitar” scratchings? Hey, I don’t mind a challenging listen, but c’mon).
I’m glad you posted about this new boxed set because it’s a chance to go reevaluate the music from that period. Even though he’s put out some great stuff during this period, I did lose track of him buying wise after World Citizen and Nine Horses (Snow Bourne Sorrow is an excellent album), and shifted to just occasionally listening to his new material online instead of on the silver disc. So this is a good chance to give it all a fresh listen. Thanks for the call to action, sir!
And, yes, his albums with Holger Czukay, Plight & Premonition and Flux + Mutability, are wonderous, lovely recordings.
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Todd Lewis – I like “challenging,” but even Scott Walker can be said to have a sense of humor; albeit pitch black. I feel that Sylvian takes himself very, very seriously. And I think that adds a layer of alienation from some of this music for me. Still, if it all sounded as inviting as that video I’d be on this in a heartbeat.
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>it’s a chance to go reevaluate the music from that period.
You need this box to do that? Why not just listen to the existing releases? You could have done that any time.
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Oh, trust me, I’m absolutely going to listen to it all online first before I even decide if I want to buy it or not. For that much money, I need to like almost everything on it or it’s a pass. That’s cut and dry.
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Yeah, this is one of those things that should have been two box sets: Collaborations (probably quite good) and Solo Wanking (to quote Marvin the Paranoid Android, “sounds awful.”)
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I agree with Monk 100%. I received the same email and it was a hard pass. Lovely front cover though. Although I was never a big fan of Japan, I did collect all the albums and singles.
Upon hearing Bamboo Music/ Houses with Sakamoto and then his first solo album, I was on board full time. It all was perfect. The image. The artwork. The music. The lyrics. I saw him live twice as well during the 80s. I collected it all including box sets.
Then Blemish arrived and it was over for me. I tried. I bought the remix album as well which was a bit more melodic. I have listened to all his post Blemish releases on streaming services and it’s not for me. I’m sure Sylvian was well aware that this new direction would alienate much of his audience.
Then Sylvian comes out with the Nine Horses project and I’m impressed. For that one album. I purchased it.
I can appreciate though that Sylvian did enter what may be his final phase with this type of sound. I don’t think he can go much further. I think Sylvian took his pre Blemish music and vocal styling as far as he could go. He took a different direction and I applaud him for that.
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Jordan – You do make an interesting point that when collaborating efforts like “Snow Bourne Sorrow” at possible, which is borderline maddening given the prickliness of his fully driven solo work. It’s fascinating to me how Sylvian and Scott Walker seemingly aimed at the same avant garde targets yet I find the Walker work eminently listenable. And can relate to it. I find that Walker’s sense of humor is one area where there is absolutely no overlap with Sylvian on the Venn Diagram of Art. Maybe it’s solely down to the deadly serious nature of Sylvian‘s probing?
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Damn, late-period Sylvian and the first Madonna LP back to back. That’s pretty much the breadth of the Monk’s monastery right there.
“Uncommon Deities” is the best disc on this list, while the follow-up “There’s A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight” is – literally – an hour-long recording of people pushing furniture around a room.
Also, the “Manafon Variations” is way way way better than “Manafon”. It comes in second to “Deities”, although the highly-lauded “Blemish” has grown on me.
Sylvian has spent the past four decades trying to live down the first two (or even three) Japan albums. There’s no reason why he needed to. He’s been in a perpetual quest for perceived legitimacy, a futile attempt to outrun his youth. He’s been overcompensating for unnecessary embarrassment for his whole adult life. The result: he eventually made absolutely alienating music that drove his audience away. Same as Godard. Desperate to deviate from the mainstream, he went so so so far from it that eventually no one at all could relate to his work.
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JT – And you open up a huge can of worms with your pithy commentary. I have to ask if Sylvian has been in analysis for the last 40 + years, and if not, why not? I see nothing but truth in what you say. The JAPAN music was youthful folly on the first two albums, at least, but even the masterful three final albums would be embarrassing to Sylvian… with the crucial exception of “Ghosts,” which contained his first embrace of atonality and yet paradoxically remains his biggest ever hit single. No wonder his heath is so poor. He must be eaten up with self-doubt. And if it must be said, even his current Oakie dirt farmer image is every bit a pose as strong as the era that imprinted itself indelibly on Young Nick Rhodes. The only time in felt I was possibly seeing the “real” Sylvian was in photos taken around the second and third albums.
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I enjoy parts of Blemish such as Fire in the Forest but that’s it. Saw the tour the followed which was challenging but still enjoyable.
Manafon was worse for me, have tried but enough is enough. I respect that he followed his muse but beyond that no. Loved Nine Horses and enjoyed parts of the Sleepwalkers compilation.
Funny, I once bumped into him in the HMV at Gatwick airport. Absolutely did not seek to say hello, didn’t want to ruin his day:)
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SimonH – Wow, it’s hard to imagine Sylvian in a HMV, especially in a high profile international airport! You did the right thing! My regret is that Sylvian canceled the show we had tickets for in 2002, at the moment right before “Blemish.”
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Yeah, I had tickets to the D.C. show he canceled. At least I got to see him live playing in Tokyo on his tour with Robert Fripp (which was a great show).
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Funny how our love story with DS is so different for each of of us. I’ve been a huge Japan fan before being a huge DS fan, but my love story totally ended with Dead Beas On A Cake. I totally hated this album when it came out (I still can’t listen to it to this day apart from 3 or 4 tracks) and Blemish totally restored my faith in DS (It’s actually on of my favorite just after Secrets Of The Beehive) because it sounded so fresh and unlike anything I’ve heard before. Manafon is another story, and even if it’s way more difficult to enjoy, I have a lot of respect for this record as a brave, stunning and uncompromising work of art. That said, I was very sad when I first heard Do You Know Me Now? and Where’s Your Gravity? These two tracks became instantly two of my favorite DS songs ever, and apparently, they also were the very last songs we would hear from him…
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Chris Von Steiner – How valuable to hear your personal, idiosyncratic take on the issue of Sylvian! My friend JT also had issues with “Dead Bees On A Cake” that my wife and I absolutely didn’t have. And I also find the “Blemish/Manofon” dynamic across the many comments here intriguing. For the record, I’ve not heard a single note from “Manofon” or its variation. I should probably hit iTunes for a crude 90 second sample and report back with my findings.
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ps: If only the book will be available apart from the box set…
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Chris Von Steiner – With the many publications of Sylvian of late, I suspect that eventually, you will get your wish.
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I like Sylvian’s CDs a lot, but he doesn’t improvise that’s the problem. He lets others improvise, then assembles something and works a song up over it. I don’t think he has the skill or inclination to risk that actually working in an improvised group would entail. But then most of my problem with his music is the preciousness that surrounds it. I’d like him to chill out a bit – the Fripp & Sylvian live CD, for instance.
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Rupert – What you say makes a great dead of sense to me. Because cub struggle with how an untrained musician could rely on improvisation and come up empty handed. What you call preciousness I might typify as a lack of humor.
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Agreed, though I have no problem with untrained musicians.
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I have everything on this set except for one b-side from a single.
I would be very, very careful about dropping the money on this that they are asking for.
I think a lot of his better work from this period (and later) is the guest work he has done with others, I’ve spent a chunk of time tracking a lot of it down. Mostly vocals added here and there.
Too much of the music on this box is an utter slog to endure with the Snowborne Sorrow being the acme of it.
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Great review, and even greater comments. Pity the JoanWasser/Sylvian duet set never saw the light of day. That would have been interesting. Out of the latter career timeframe, “Uncommon Deities”, “Manofon Variations” and “Snow Borne Sorrow” are the easiest to digest, IMHO. Scott Walker and Mark Hollis did it better.
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Meederr – Welcome to the comments! I am 100% with you on that conclusion. I find that Walker and Hollis never crossed the line into facile dissonance. Plus, Walker was a more well rounded artist. Sylvian is humorless. I think that Sylvian has avant garde aspirations but lacks the musical foundation to successfully break the rules. Instead he merely makes an unpleasant noise. Not that there’s any shortage of well-trained musicians doing the same… and I’m talking to you, Marc Ribot… David Torn. I have walked out of sets by those great guitarists after just minutes.
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