Sylvian and heavyweight free improvisers make a most original album
Manafon finds Sylvian so far out from his former life as a pop star that, like Scott Walker, he is hanging onto it by the slenderest thread. It also shows 2003's Blemish - featuring the astringent lines of improvising guitarist Derek Bailey - were no mere aberration. Here Sylvian sings against spartan group improvisations by the likes of saxophonist Evan Parker, AMM pianist John Tilbury and electronist Christian Fennesz. Initially baffling, Manafon richly repays further decktime. Sylvian's gorgeous creamy voice drifts calmly across a fidgety soundworld which includes his own fragmentary acoustic guitar and keyboards. At times it feels as though voice and instruments are completely disassociated, at other times oddly concordant. The melodies are tightly written though, and the lyrics carry some vivid pictorial images, like the requiem for the enigmatic Rabbit Skinner and the terrorist cell of Random Acts of Senseless Violence
4 Stars