David Sylvian
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
After 1983s Forbidden Colours, another joint effort with Sakamoto composed for the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Sylvian released his 1984 solo debut, Brilliant Trees. The first step in his musics evolution from Japans post-glam synth pop into richly textured, poetic ambience, the album featured contributions from Sakamoto as well as Jon Hassell and Can alumnus Holger Czukay. That year, Sylvian also published his first book of photographs, Perspectives: Polaroids 82/84; in 1985, he released Preparations for the Journey, a documentary filmed in and around Tokyo, as well as the EP Words With the Shaman.
Gone to Earth, an ambitious double LP recorded with assistance from Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson, followed in 1986, while 1987 marked the release not only of the beautiful Secrets of the Beehive album but also the book collection Trophies: The Lyrics of David Sylvian. At the same time, he began composing the score for modern dancer Gaby Abis Kin, which premiered at Londons Almeida Theater that September; another collaboration with Abis, Dont Trash My Altar, Dont Alter My Trash, bowed in November 1988. Also in 1988, Sylvian reunited with Holger Czukay for the instrumental LP Plight and Premonition; the duo re-teamed in 1989 for Flux + Mutability. Ember Glance: The Permanence of Memory, an installation of sculpture, sound, and light created by Sylvian and Russell Mills, was staged in Tokyo Bay, Shinagawa, in 1990; a year later, he and the other members of Japan, who had briefly reunited under the name Rain Tree Crow, issued a self-titled album.
In 1994, Sylvian emerged in tandem with Robert Fripp for both an album, The First Day, and Redemption, another sound-and-image installation exhibited in Japan. The superb Dead Bees on a Cake followed in 1999; Approaching Silence, a collection of instrumental material, appeared later that fall. In fall 2000 Sylvian returned with the double-disc Everything and Nothing, which made for an excellent introduction to some of Sylvians projects that had finally taken shape after composition completion, financial settlements, and time constraints throughout his solo career. He reappeared in 2003 with Blemish, an unsettling disc of new material featuring appearances by avant guitar legend Derek Bailey and electronica experimentalist Christian Fennesz.
