Vista blog

[silentwings]

I've just published a new article on David Sylvian's involvement with Propaganda at the time of the making of their much-praised debut album A Secret Wish.

Sylvian was invited by ZTT executive (and music journalist) Paul Morley to produce the album when it was clear Trevor Horn would be unable to do so given the phenomenal success of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Whilst Sylvian declined the offer, he did come up with the first mix of 'Duel' (never released) and composed a synthesiser part for 'p:Machinery' which the band (and the ultimately appointed producer Steve Lipson) recognised as being a defining contribution.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/07/22/pmachinery/

[Quiet Visitor]

^^Nice timing with the recent release of xPropaganda: https://burningshed.com/xpropaganda_the ... egory=true

[silentwings]

I've just published a new article about the song 'Jacqueline' which David Sylvian contributed for the cover cd of the magazine The Believer in 2009.

At the time we were awaiting the release of Manafon and were told that 'Jacqueline' would soon be recorded for Sylvian's subsequent project. Its more traditional song structure showed Sylvian's then-stated intent to work with both improvised and more conventional forms.

The song's subject is Pablo Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline. She has been much maligned but was devoted to her husband and his memory before her death by suicide in 1986.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/08/12/jacqueline/

[silentwings]

I've just published a new article on 'Playing the Schoolhouse', David Sylvian's first release on Mark Wastell's Confront Recordings label.

The piece was created during a brief interlude within a three-month long session at Jan Bang's studio in Kristiansand, Norway. The article explores the circumstances of the recording, its fit with the aesthetic of Confront Recordings, and the links that Sylvian traced between this track and his earlier instrumental work - including that with Holger Czukay.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/09/09/pla ... hoolhouse/

[silentwings]

Back to Rain Tree Crow for the latest blog article. 'Blackcrow Hits Shoe Shine City' was the first track to emerge from the sessions by the ex-members of Japan. The vocal came later, after Bill Nelson had helped shape the track with his guitar part. Sylvian's lyric demonstrates his fascination with the mythical symbol of the crow.

Writing this I was reminded of the Jansen/Barbieri/Karn release Breakable Moons, outtakes from the sessions for their album _ism. The instrumentals from these two releases have something of the essence of Rain Tree Crow to these ears.

Here's the article: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/09/30/bla ... hine-city/

[silentwings]

Upon This Fleeting Dream is a new release by Twinkle³ featuring David Sylvian & Kazuko Hohki.

Sylvian features on 7 of the 10 tracks reading short Japanese poems in English translation. Renditions of the poetry in the original Japanese are given by Kazuko Hohki.

Twinkle³ is a trio including Clive Bell who is a virtuoso player of Eastern wind instruments including the shakuhachi. The woody sound of his playing permeates the album, set against the modular synths of David Ross and Richard Scott. Bell has previously appeared on The Dolphin Brothers album Catch the Fall, JBK's _ism and Sylvian's When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima.

I interviewed Clive Bell to find out more about the project and the poetry that is recited by Sylvian & Hohki.

The article can be found here, with links to bandcamp in the footnotes where the full album is now available for download, with the vinyl available for pre-order: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/10/21/thr ... sty-night/

[Tin Bird]

I've just published a new article on 'Playing the Schoolhouse', David Sylvian's first release on Mark Wastell's Confront Recordings label.

The piece was created during a brief interlude within a three-month long session at Jan Bang's studio in Kristiansand, Norway. The article explores the circumstances of the recording, its fit with the aesthetic of Confront Recordings, and the links that Sylvian traced between this track and his earlier instrumental work - including that with Holger Czukay.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/09/09/pla ... hoolhouse/

Have not read your article, but IMO anything other than "..." would be hyperbole. I also don't see any connection at all to his work w HC other than the method of improv I suppose. Personally I thought this release was the nadir of DS work. Utterly and totally devoid of any reason at all to exist other than just to put something out. It literally sounds like a five year old shuffling through pages of a coloring book over in the corner of the room while someone else changes the channels on a radio randomly. LOL Now that I've posted this, I am actually feeling even more motivated to read your article. I can't imagine how to pontificate about a work that is so pointless. Let's see. A brave choice to write about for sure.

[Tin Bird]

Just read the article. It is very well done. Obviously, IMO way too much analysis for what I previously noted as a waste of time. I would add that I am a huge fan of DS ambient/experimental work as evidence by my choice of avatar. I just don't see this work as a worthy addition. I do like the idea of improv and own a few Confront CD's, but in general, I rarely, if ever, listen to them and frankly find them unremarkable and indistinguishable from one another. Art for art's sake is fine. I actually own 4'33" on CD for gosh sake! I guess it is hard for me to listen to a man whom I regard as one of the greatest songwriter's in pop music history to languish is such mediocre seas. DS can easily do (as most of us could) what the majority of the artists on the Confront label do album after album. Not one of them could write a song like Nostalgia or Orpheus or Darkest Dreaming and bring it to such beautiful fruition.

[silentwings]

Just read the article. It is very well done. Obviously, IMO way too much analysis for what I previously noted as a waste of time...

Thanks for reading the article on ...Schoolhouse. I'm certainly not intending to tell anyone how they should regard the music, just to fill in some of the background as far as I am able to research it, including the thoughts of those directly involved. We will all have our own experience as to how we enjoy the releases, which is perfectly fine. David's catalogue is so diverse, that's one of the beauties of it to me.

[Tin Bird]

Of course... I certainly spent a LOT of words talking down the work didn't I?
Again, very well done article...I enjoyed reading about the piece much more than listening to it.

[silentwings]

The latest article, just published, is about the multi-media installation by David Sylvian and Robert Fripp staged in Tokyo in 1994, Redemption - Approaching Silence.

Until recently little visual material was available (in marked contrast to the earlier Ember Glance with Russell Mills.) However, last year David Sylvian posted some images and video by Yuka Fujii, and piecing this together with other materials we can now get a sense of what it was like to visit.

The music includes frippertronics from Fripp, synthesisers from Sylvian and samples including an 'orchestral barrage' provided by Holger Czukay. Sylvian also treated Fripp's reading of the text for a limited-edition cassette.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/11/11/redemption/

[silentwings]

I've published a new article about 'Visions of China' from Tin Drum, looking into the Chinese influence and how this impacted the sound on this track and others on the album.

Steve Jansen's drumming is a great example of how the band rose to the challenge of weaving the inspiration into their music in ingenious fashion.

Also exploring Marc Riboud's volume of photographs of the same name and how this shaped the album artwork.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/12/02/visions-of-china/

[Quiet Visitor]

Thanks for sharing this blog.
Strange the 40th anniversary of Tin Drum has gone by without any special releases. Even the 33 1/3-book that is in the can for years stayed their.

[silentwings]

Over time I've updated a few of the earliest articles from when the blog started in 2018, as they were published before the format settled.

I have just expanded the article on 'A Certain Slant of Light' from Died in the Wool - a song based on an Emily Dickinson poem and featuring a wonderful sound-collage from Erik Honoré and Jan Bang, who included samples from a live performance by trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Sylvian dedicated the track to Mick Karn.

Updated article here: https://sylvianvista.com/2018/06/01/a-c ... -of-light/

[silentwings]

I've just published a new article on David Sylvian's contribution to Pierre Barouh's 1982 album Le Pollen, recorded in Tokyo with a cast of Japanese musicians.

I love this story of musical inspiration across continents and cultures: Barouh drawing on Brazilian bossa nova, Yukihiro Takahashi's fascination with Barouh's music in the film A Man and a Woman, and Sylvian finding inspiration from both Japanese music and the French singer.

Sylvian said that meeting Barouh renewed his feeling for music during the period when he stopped writing in the last days of Japan, paving the way for the solo career to come.

Here's the link: https://sylvianvista.com/2022/12/23/le-pollen-demain/