New David Sylvian Biography

[ChrisEYoung]

I am pleased to be able to announce that the biography of David Sylvian that I have been writing for 4 years has just received official licence and permissions from David's copyright holders, and is now available to order on line at http://www.sylvianbiography.com. The book (On the Periphery. David Sylvian: A Biography. The Solo Years) is officially released on 12th December 2013, and at http://www.sylvianbiography.com you will find excerpts, details of the content of the book, and much more.

The book is a 384 pages hardback (240,000 words), and details the full span of David's solo career 1982 - 2013. It covers every solo release, collaborative release, and group release in this period, and knits together the story of David's personal, spiritual, and musical evolution over the last 30 years.

The book was fascinating to research, and provides a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the man and his music. I located hundreds and hundreds of interviews and delved into countless sources directly relating to David or his collaborators to begin to build the narrative, which in many places uses David's own words to inform the story. What has been produced is a book that describes in great detail the evolution of one of today's most enigmatic and innovative composers.

[missouriman]

Just ordered one.

Quite a nice surprise to read about this today.

[pinenut]

is there any part of the forum you haven't posted this?

i look forward to the faint possibility of a Sylvian autobiography one day. However a biography is of little interest to me. I don't like the second guessing what the subject may or may not be thinking where biographies are concerned. I understand you have researched heaps of interviews etc but most Sylvian fans have read them. Reading the samples on your link i see reference to many interviews I have read time and again.however I wish you luck with your venture.

[Blemished]

is there any part of the forum you haven't posted this?

Hi. Yes, it was a bit of overkill there! I've changed Chris's posts to a global announcement and removed the multiple posts.

About to take a look at the excepts now...it's not everyday a book abut DS hits the shelves!

Cheers

Blemished

[billster]

Any original research interviews for this or is it the usual cut and paste interspersed with Fresher year theory?

[swordofdestiny]

I'll gladly shell out money on a book on Sylvian written by a proper journalist.

[Chad]

eh... where's the beef? This reads like a self written wiki page.Is there any dirt in this book at all? Does it go into ill-fated the nine horses "negotiations"? or the poor fan reception of the k-watt experiments? Does it provide us with any hope whatsoever or just more grey skies?

[swordofdestiny]

What you get out of it depends entirely upon what you expect. Personally I don't want gossip and 'dirt'. How tedious and juvenile if that excites you. I would like a well written appreciation of his work. Funny how exactly the people I imagined turned up to throw cold water on this.

[Chad]

if you cant tell the whole story why bother at all?

[swordofdestiny]

With all due respect Chad you don't know what's in the book other than a few passages on the book website.

[billster]

and they are so dull they are barely readable.

I get the feeling its a more long winded version of the dreck-like 'Last romantic' although with less new insights/new interviews/research.

There was a dissertation on Sylvian doing the rounds on the net years ago and it reminds me of that- dry, academic.

[karnsculpture]

I'm interested to see what the full book is like, but I'm aware already that the approach the author has taken is the complete opposite of Anthony Reynolds for the Japan book due out next year.

There's also the Chris Bigg book co-produced with David and possibly another photographic/visual book about the Japan years due out next year.

Are Japan the new Velvet Underground?

[ChrisEYoung]

Hi All

Well, first of all apologies for posting too many times on you site, was not sure how it worked, but guess everyone is logged in and has access to all areas.

MIxed comments from your group. Thankfully, the negative comments have not been replicated in other areas that the publisher has announced the availability of the book, but we thrive on criticism not just praise!

I guess I am somewhat surprised by people writing this book off on the basis of an announcement and maybe 1000 words of excerpts from a 250,000 word book. All I would say is that is you are after a Martin Power book updated, you will be disappointed. This book attempts to "interpret" Sylvian's personal, spiritual, and musical evolution, not report it. Of course, any book tracking 30 years of a composers career will touch on areas you already know about, but hopefully it will delve into many areas that are new.

It is not an academic book. It is however thoughtful, and does not dwell on what David chooses to do on a Friday night and what he eats for his dinner, but does focus on developments in his personal and spiritual life and how that affects his musical output.

The premise behind the book is to understand how someone moves from mainstream popular music, with all that implies in terms of lucrative and potentially short-lived fame, to the "periphery" to become one of the most enigmatic but innovative modern composers around today.

It has been written from the perspective of a fan of 30 years plus, and finding out what I did while researching fascinated me, so I hope it will also fascinate you. I am confident that while obviously not everyone is ignorant of everything in the book, that even the most well informed follower of David's work will find themselves surprised by some of the findings of my work.

Ultimately, if you are unconvinced, don't buy the book. We only wanted to make people aware of its availability, and from there it is down to you.

Finally. some people are commenting that the release date of 12th December is a cynical ploy to get Christmas sales. The book was competed in October, and has only been delayed while attaining official licenses from David's copyright holders.

Hope this explains a little further, and would be happy to give some real insight into the book if people have questions.

Thanks

Chris

[Simonp]

Hi Chris

I really don't see why you're having to justify all the hard work in pulling this thing together. People should be aware that Sylvian has no interest in this type of work about him and as such wouldn't make a direct contribution. He's stated in previous interviews that an autobiography was DEFINITELY not on his to do list and that he had no interest in others who chose to write about him. I for one am very excited about the book and have already ordered a couple of copies (one for myself and another for a friend). Yes I'm sure there will be plenty of stuff i've read before (interviews, quotes etc) but I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that. The premise sounds exciting. You're approaching this from a slightly different slant to Martin Power's book which was a straightforward account of Sylvian's solo work. Good luck to you and I hope the book sells well.

Oh and if anyone else thinks they can do something better...then what is stopping you? Give Chris a break. He's invested 4 years of his life on this. Much longer than the 5 minutes the moaners have invested in dissing a work they haven't even read yet.

Simon

[Simonp]

Funny how exactly the people I imagined turned up to throw cold water on this.

Was thinking exactly the same thing Sword...some folk really need to get out more or try listening to another artist if they don't like what Sylvian is doing now