Sleepwalkers

[pradakid900]

Oh, that gave a good laugh!

[neonico]

i found this on the samadhisound my space site the artist is called onisakti he posted the pic on samadhisound with his greeting message i wonder if theres a connection between this pic and the sleepwalkers pic they look very similar....

or this brought david of idea of doing something similar....

[missouriman]

Oni Sakti. I think Neonico is correct.

[heartofdavid]

Yes, very similar, very possible it is by Oni or influenced by him. I looked him up on wiki, which said he was once known as Atticus Ross, a musician and producer, most recently involved with Trent Reznor's new project How to Destroy Angels - don't know how accurate that is.

Good call, Neonico.

[karnsculpture]

There's some similarity to the various Lady Gaga Fame Monster covers too.

However, it maybe addresses some of Sylvian's recent themes e.g. contradictions in society, political and social freedoms (or lack therof), and challenging the status quo e.g. the woman is wearing a veil or even but it is subverted by covering the top of her face not the mouth, and her breasts are bared.

It's also possibly a joke - he had a dog with eyebrows on his last collection and now he has a woman-cat so there's kind of a running theme. Remember his photo of a cat and how he tagged the picture "pure evil" or something like that? Is he equating dogs with a happy time in his life ("Everything & Nothing" before the marriage dissolved) and everything since (Cats are evidently evil in David's world).

[missouriman]

Interesting take, Paul. What about Opi though? And Ingrid had two cats when he met her. Remember he said they married with only the two cats as a witness in the apt? I never got the eyebrow dog thing. Does anybody know what that image meant? Was it just a funny image he liked?

[baht habit]

Lokking forward to five lines...but there's not much else to get excited by...and think the nine horses stuff is misplaced

Here is a fragment of my correspondence with an insider:

"Sylvian does sing on “Five Lines,” and Fujikura composed the music which is performed by a string quartet. It’s really excellent! I’ve been spending a lot of time with the collection and really enjoying it, and the cuts from Nine Horses and Slope work really well on here."

So I suppose it is all about one's perception of the material that Sylvian released with Jansen in the middle of the decade. But this particular person is especially an avid fan of Sylvian's Blemish and Manafon, who nonetheless made it a point to speak highly of that specific material with no solicitation. So perhaps the presentation of these relatively mainstream tracks works to assist them come across well in context? We know that Sylvian did a strong job with the presentation of Everything And Nothing. I would think that there is no reason for him to drop his high level of artistic control, especially on a compilation to be released on his very own label. I'm quite anxious to find out if this assertion is true.

[Astronaut]

Interesting take, Paul. What about Opi though? And Ingrid had two cats when he met her. Remember he said they married with only the two cats as a witness in the apt? I never got the eyebrow dog thing. Does anybody know what that image meant? Was it just a funny image he liked?

Opi was Yuka's cat. David never had any pets of his own. He likes dogs and had a dog called Tim when he was a kid so maybe its just a preference from childhood. I don't think he dislikes cats particularly. The Sleepwalkers image probaby wasn't commissioned specially for the album. I imagine it was a pre-existing work that David liked the look of. I suspect there is some humour attached to it's choice - like the dog with eyebrows. Why not? It gets people talking about the album - doesn't it????????????


David doesn't love me anymore! *sob*

[digimarsh]

I must say , i was suprised when i saw the cover ( i have been away so only just seen it), i don't really like it to be honest but i suppose it has some artistic merit, i have always enjoyed the more abstract covers ,Dead bees, secrets of the beehive, this one a tad too stark for my taste.

[Simonp]

I'll pass judgement once I've seen the whole cover. The scan on David's website isn't particularly good anyway

[karnsculpture]

I'll pass judgement once I've seen the whole cover. The scan on David's website isn't particularly good anyway

I thought you had already passed judgement, saying it was beautiful earlier in this thread

[Simonp]

I'll pass judgement once I've seen the whole cover. The scan on David's website isn't particularly good anyway

I thought you had already passed judgement, saying it was beautiful earlier in this thread

I did say it was beautiful earlier Paul, you are correct. What I meant so say was it may be better if people waited to see the actual thing "in the flesh" before deciding they didn't like it. I've not been disappointed in any of Chris Bigg's work for samadhisound so far. Thanks once again for correcting me

[Serotonin]

I'm a little bit confused... the "SLEEPWALKERS" album is being sold on eBay even though its release date is not until Sept 27th, according to Samadhi. Does anyone know how is this possible? (Sorry, I can't link it to this site).
There is also a brief review on each of the songs with comments by our David. The ones which caught my attention mostly were his comments on "Trauma" and on "Sugarfuel" .
xx

[missouriman]

The single “World Citizen – I Won’t Be Disappointed,” written with Ryuichi Sakamoto, is a sublime example, with an impeccable melody and lyric warmed by Sylvian’s gorgeous tenor. Sylvian has worked with Sakamoto for close to three decades. By contrast, on “Pure Genius,” a collaboration with Chris Vrenna aka Tweaker, he sounds like he’s walked into a heist flick, singing the part of a delusional, dangerous bedroom genius. As Sylvian explains, tracks like this “give me a chance to write in a way that’s completely non-personal, playful. It’s an exercise of some kind, working within the parameters of a given assignment.”

Intrigue of a different kind drives “Sugarfuel,” with music by Jean-Philippe Verdin, aka Readymade FC. The lyrics offered “an opportunity to grapple with a more overt sexual theme than anything I’d attempted previously, as suggested by a vocal sample in the original track provided, a threateningly insistent ‘I’m on your side.’ So I took that as my point of entry and ran with it. I would love to write more on this subject should I find the right context. You’re always aware of walking a thin line exploring sexuality with language alone. The failings of the great and the good are strewn all around.”

Sylvian’s longest-running partnership is with his brother, drummer and electronics artist Steve Jansen, and two of their projects find their way here: the Nine Horses trio with Burnt Friedman, and Jansen’s debut album (and samadhisound release) Slope. “Wonderful World” strolls in on a black tie bass line and the echoing coos of Swedish chanteuse Stina Nordenstam, whose high chirps brush hands with Sylvian’s lead; while on “Ballad of a Deadman,” his voice and Joan Wasser’s (Joan As Police Woman) roll together over the tune’s dusty blues. But Sylvian is alone again with the bitter memories of “Playground Martyrs,” while Jansen’s exquisite music recalls the orchestrated ballads of Secrets of the Beehive.

Sleepwalkers also spotlights the innovators who contributed to Manafon and Blemish. Christian Fennesz hangs a crackling, shimmering curtain behind the vocal on “Transit,” matching his signature mass of sui generis sounds to Sylvian’s stately performance. And the title track began with an instrumental handed to Sylvian by Martin Brandlmayr of Polwechsel, soon after the first recording session for Manafon. Spite crackles in the gaps between the percussion, and onkyo artists Toshimaru Nakamura and Sachiko M set the stage for the scathing lyrics in the chorus.

It cuts close to the bone, and so do the two spoken word cuts, “Angel” and “Thermal,” produced by samadhisound recording artist Jan Bang and Erik Honoré (and featuring Arve Henriksen on trumpet). Sylvian describes the latter work as a “love poem” to his daughter. “‘Thermal’ reflects on a period when our time in Sonoma, CA was coming to an end. We’d stayed in temporary accommodation which had lulled us into a false sense of security. We had pear, apple, lemon, and figs trees growing in the yard. A small but exotic paradise. A cocoon. But the cracks were beginning to show in the relationship between [ex-wife Ingrid Chavez] and I which is where I think this underlying sense of anxiety, which runs throughout the poem, is derived from, coupled with the need to provide physical and spiritual stability to the children, the youngest of whom was just under two at the time. The poem is addressed to her. Our world was dissipating, coming apart at the seams, but we were an island unto ourselves.”

The previously unreleased “Five Lines” marks the start of a new partnership with acclaimed young composer Dai Fujikura, who is also working on remixes of Manafon for a future release. The string quartet was performed by the celebrated ICE Ensemble and written for Sylvian, who Fujikura cites as an early influence. Says Sylvian, “The composition moves through numerous changes in time signature but as I had no knowledge of what these were I just relied on my gut instinct, and responded, as I always do, with what felt right to me, composing an entirely new melody in the process. Some months later I was working in a studio in London and Dai dropped by. I rather tentatively asked if he’d like to hear a rough mix of the song as it stood, painfully aware that my contribution might make no sense to him at all but, to my relief he loved the result.”

Like 2000’s Everything and Nothing, Sleepwalkers is a retrospective of the past decade – but it’s also an eye-opening complement to his solo releases. As Sylvian explains, “Some collaborations seem to be a one off exchange but you can never be too certain of that fact. Others have been long term. Ryuichi comes to mind as, of course, does Steve. And then there’s others with whom you hope to continue working as you feel you’ve barely scratched the surface. Other times offers come out of the blue, welcome, inspired. Regardless, it’s wonderful to have so many possibilities to juggle with. Each collaboration seems timely. It’s as if there’s a rightness to the exchange at a given moment in time.”



1. Sleepwalkers
2. Money For All
3. Ballad Of A Deadman
4. Angels
5. World Citizen (I Won't Be Disappointed)
6. Five Lines
7. The Day The Earth Stole Heaven
8. Playground Martyrs
9. Exit / Delete
10. Pure Genius
11. Wonderful World
12. Transit
13. The World Is Everything
14. Thermal
15. Sugarfuel
16. Trauma



This CD Is Brand New & Unplayed - Not A Copy!!!





Buy with confidence, Take a look at our excellent feedback score & comments

[ScottR]

Looks like an inside job to me. Maybe dS needs a little extra income for back to school clothes for the kids.