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David Sylvian

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David Sylvian

David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958, in Beckenham, Kent, UK) is an English singer, musician and composer who first rose to fame as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the band, Japan. His subsequent solo career has been influenced by a variety of musical styles and genres, including jazz, ambient music, electronic music, and progressive rock.

Biography

Japan

The band Japan, whose other members included Mick Karn, Rob Dean, Richard Barbieri and Sylvian's brother Steve Jansen, began as a group of friends who grew up together. As youngsters they played music as a means of escape, playing David's two-chord numbers – sometimes with Mick as the frontman, sometimes with David as the frontman.

Eventually, they christened themselves Japan in 1974 and became an alternative glam rock outfit in the mold of David Bowie, T.Rex and The New York Dolls. Over a period of a few short years, however, their music became more sophisticated – drawing initially on the art rock stylings of Roxy Music. Their visual image also evolved and the band was tagged with the New Romantic label. Indeed, it could be argued that Japan were at the forefront of the entire New Romantic movement, even though the band never associated themselves with it. Japan recorded five studio albums between March 1978 and November 1981, with each recording being more sophisticated than the last.

Sylvian's singing met with a great deal of early criticism for sounding affected and an imitation of Roxy Music's frontman Bryan Ferry. But by the end of Japan's run, his voice had begun to mature into its own distinctive baritone.

Exorcising Ghosts

Sylvian's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees (1984), met with critical acclaim and yielded the single "Red Guitar", another Top 20 hit. Guest artists included Jon Hassell and Holger Czukay. His follow-up was an ambitious two-record set, Gone to Earth (1986), which flouted conventional and commercial wisdom by featuring one record of songs and one record consisting almost entirely of ambient instrumental tracks. Guest artists included guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson.

His third album, Secrets of the Beehive (1987), was more acoustic and oriented towards somber, emotive ballads laced with shimmering string arrangements by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It yielded one of Sylvian's most well-received songs, Orpheus, and was supported by his first solo tour, 1988's In Praise of Shamans. Sylvian's touring band included ex-Japan bandmates Jansen and Barbieri along with trumpeter Mark Isham, bassist Ian Maidman and guitarists David Torn and Robbie Aceto.

Never one to conform to commercial expectations, Sylvian then collaborated on several ambient music projects focusing on improvisation and random chance, including Plight And Premonition and Flux + Mutability with former Can bassist Holger Czukay and Ember Glance - The Permanence of Memory with artist Russell Mills.

In 1990, Sylvian decided to reunite with the former members of Japan, yet utilizing those conceptual challenges normally presented by improvisation like that which he initially pursued in his work with Holger Czukay. Guitarists Bill Nelson, Phil Palmer and Michael Brook augmented the quartet for the recording of the album, since original Japan guitarist Rob Dean was not offered that chance to take part in the proceedings. In an attempt to distance the project even more from the sound and atmosphere that surrounded Japan in the early 80s, and to the dismay of both his label Virgin Records and his former bandmates, Sylvian insisted on calling the project and the album Rain Tree Crow. The RTC sessions became increasingly acrimonious as Sylvian reportedly assumed a controlling temperament over the entire recording, turning the record, in effect, into his newest solo project. When the album was finally released in 1991, Jansen Barbieri and Karn were no longer communicating with Sylvian.

The Fripp Trip

In late 1991, Robert Fripp approached Sylvian and asked him to be part of a new King Crimson. Sylvian declined the invitation, and instead suggested they work on a future collaboration. With frequent Fripp associate Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick, and performing a set of newly composed material, Sylvian and Fripp toured Japan and Italy during the spring of 1992. With the addition of Jerry Marotta on drums and Marc Anderson on percussion, the group went into the studio in late 1992 to document the material they had written together.

In July of 1993, Sylvian startled many of his long-term fans by teaming with Fripp on the album The First Day, which married Sylvian's philosophical lyrics to funk workouts and hard-driving progressive rock songs very much in the mold of King Crimson. The group went back out on the road to promote the album in the fall of 93. Sylvian, Fripp and Gunn were joined by infinite guitarist Michael Brook and ex-Mister Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto for The Road To Graceland Tour. A subsequent live recording, titled Damage and released in 1994, was culled from the final show on the tour. Fripp, Gunn and Mastelotto went on to work in the reformed King Crimson that Fripp had originally wished for Sylvian to front.

In an art space, called P3 (P3 Art and Environment), located in the basement of a modern Zen temple, called Tochoji, in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Fripp and Sylvian collaborated on an exhibition called "David Sylvian and Robert Fripp: Redemption – Approaching Silence". The installation featured projected images and text in a dimly-lit room, illuminated only by candles. The music was available as a cassette-only version. The exhibition ran from August 30, 1994 to September 18, 1994, P3, Tokyo, Japan. The accompanying music was composed by David Sylvian, with text by Robert Fripp.

In the late summer of 1995, Sylvian undertook a one-man solo tour of which he named "Slow Fire - A Personal Retrospective". Performing alone either on an acoustic guitar or a keyboard, Sylvian drew largely upon his first three solo albums for song selection. He also included a few rearrangements from the more recent excursions with Rain Tree Crow and Robert Fripp. The tour marked the end of a highly productive four years.

Everything And Nothing

A period of relative musical inactivity followed, during which time Sylvian and Chavez moved from Minnesota to the Napa Valley in California. They have two daughters, each with Sanskrit names. Chavez pursued her interest in photography and music. During this time, Sylvian and Chavez recorded material for a possible Chavez solo work that was never formally released.

In 1999, Sylvian released Dead Bees on a Cake, his first solo album since Beehive. It showed the most eclectic influence of all his recordings, ranging from soul music to jazz fusion to Eastern spiritual chants, and most of the songs' lyrics reflected the now 41-year-old Sylvian's inner peace from his marriage, family and beliefs. Guest artists included longtime friend Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as Talvin Singh, Marc Ribot, Kenny Wheeler and Bill Frisell.

Following Dead Bees, Sylvian released a pair of compilation albums through Virgin, the two-disc retrospective Everything & Nothing and Camphor, the former focusing on vocal tracks and the latter on instrumental recordings. An effort to promote "Everything and Nothing" found Sylvian touring the world with a band that included his brother back on drums, Tim Young (of The Youngs, Zony Mash etc.) on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass, and Matt Cooper on keyboards. The US leg was shortened due to poor ticket sales.

Samadhi Sound

File:David sylvian in performance.jpg
David Sylvian in performance with his brother Steve Jansen.

Sylvian parted ways with Virgin and launched his own independent label, Samadhi Sound. The first proposed project was a collaboration with his brother, and work was begun with bassist Keith Lowe in the fall of 2002. During a break in the proceedings, Sylvian experimented alone with treated sounds made from his guitar and computer. The results were recorded during February of 2003. A few months later, he released the album Blemish. The disc was shockingly stark in its sound and content. The subject matter dealt primarily with the impending dissolution of Sylvian's marriage. With the collaborative effort now put on the backburner due to the strong reception for the new disc, Sylvian and Jansen headed out to promote Blemish with Masakatsu Takagi for their A Fire In The Forest Tour in 2003 and 2004.

The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter, an album of remixes of tracks from Blemish, came out in 2005.

With the conclusion of A Fire In The Forest Tour in 2004, work resumed on the joint project between Sylvian and Jansen. Contributors included past collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Robert Fripp, though his part was excised from the finished product. Yet the course of the album took on a completely new tone after Sylvian's decision to add keyboardist/programmer Burnt Friedman to the proceedings and to make him an equal partner in the collaboration. The band name of Nine Horses was adopted and their first cd, titled Snow Borne Sorrow, was released in October of 2005. The album successfully fused together elements of pop, avant garde jazz, folk and electronica, creating an overall sound that seemed like a logical path for Sylvian to follow. In January 2007, Nine Horses released a follow-up EP, Money For All, which included new material as well as remixes of selected songs from their first cd.

Discography

Japan

Solo

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