News 29.03.99
It's out now
! After nearly 12 years
of waiting for another solo-album, endless discussions whether Sylvian will ever release
anything again in his lifetime, numerous controversies about bootlegging and whether it
would be fair to listen to something which hasn't been made available to public ears yet,
a mysteriously stolen 4-track sampler and a similar mysterious recording entitled
"Little Girls with 99 Lives" which was sent out to a couple of friends only:
"Dead Bees on a Cake" is finally upon us. Being one of the first people who have
bought the album the very day it was officially released I am very pleased with the
overall design of the album. It is nearly redundant to say but the booklet is really
nicely done. Lots of pretty pictures of David (one with Ingrid), some excerpts from the
lyrics, the feet of his beloved spiritual Mother Amma and very nice colours with a lot of
gold ink. The booklet folds out into one large piece, but you do not need to take origami
lessons to fold it back together (although I must confess I'm not a big fan of these
fold-out covers). This could have been a perfect thing if there wasn't one awful spelling
mistake:
Misspellings!On the back of the Cd the song Thalheim
is mistakenly spelled "Thalhiem". And to make things even worse inside the
booklet they spell it "Thaleim". This is totally beyond me. It's not like they
didn't have time to proofread it since the album had been postponed a couple of times. To
shed some light: Thalheim is s little village in Germany and the word Thal-heim means
valley-home.
They also couldn't agree on the
correct spelling of the fifth track: On the back it says "God Man", inside the
booklet it's "Godman". The same with "All of my Mother's Names" (back)
and "All of My Mothers Names" (booklet). It's really a shame no-one properly
checked the spelling of the titles. I wonder how Sylvian must feel about it...
Onto some lighter aspects:
There is a new interview in the April issue of MOJO. The article is incredible
eight pages long and is mainly focussing on Japan's carreer and has lots of pretty
pictures of Japan, Sylvian with Holger Czukay, his wife Ingrid and Sakamoto. There is a
brief overview of his back catalogue entitled "The Sylvian Saga" (Every
generation has a legend. Every journey has a first step. Every saga has a beginning...
– some might know what I'm referring to, only a few more months to go folks. The
magic is back!)
There is also a German university
magazine Unicompact that is freely
distributed and features Sylvian on the cover. The article (no interview) is extremely
positiv and is calling the new album "music for eternity". The writer says:
"with this opus Sylvian manages to move into the Hall of Fame of the artists of the
century". The article gives some information about Shree Maa (the one that sings on
Praise): "She comes from a wealthy Indian family. As a teenager she ran into the
woods and has never returned. From then on she dedicated her whole life to God."
But the most indepth new article
comes from JAM! I hope to have an online
version on my pages at a later point.
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/mar25_sylvian.html
And don't forget to get hold of
the two new singles for I
Surrender (incl.
four previously unreleased tracks sung by Ingrid, and she truely has a great voice!).
News 12.03.99
This is my last news-update for quite a while, since I will be on the CeBIT in Hannover next week for 3COM. Hope all of you will enjoy the album. Even though I still think that the music isn't as strong as it used to be, it is growing with each time listening. I probably have heard the whole album a hundred times or more by now. My favorite track is still the sublime and beautiful song Thalheim.
Latest news:
The beforementioned video from the electronic press kit (epk) will be generally released
mid-April !
There is a new and stunning looking
David Sylvian site on the net: http://eden.vmg.co.uk/davidsylvian.html
It has real-audio excerpts from an
interview with David, as well as samples from various songs from Dead Bees. Although I
haven't been confirmed yet it appears to be the official David Sylvian website. Go visit !
Fabrizio submitted this new article: On the march issue of Rumore (Italian music magazine) there's a short but interesting interview done by Rossano Lo Mele: nothing new, but a different view from what we heard by mainstream magazines (Rumore is an indie and "fringe" one).
Some highlights taken form the interview (actually 95% of the whole!):
- it seems that the interviewer
met Sylvian in London, in a hotel room provided by the label;
- he says that Sylvian is very thin
and with dark black hair, and despite he's 40 he at least looks 30;
- there's a little reference to the
fact that slanderers often judge Sylvian as a "more decaying Nick Rhodes", while
admirers like David Toop apostrophized him as the shaman of pop, admirers who were worried
that BT and SotB wouldn't have had a follower;
- Sylvian makes some irony on the
fact that 12 years passed, and he says that time didn't seem to pass so quickly;
- He justifies the 12 years gap of
solo works with the fact that he began to explore different paths, like those of
collaborations, than understanding that thess paths lead him in a corner not allowing him
to do what he actually wanted to do; and then psychological crises that got him until some
times ago;
- contrarily to what many people
think, DS is not far from reality, and he says he overcame his crisis by dipping into
everyday life: his family is made of 5 people [as far as I know there is another
child by the name of Tinondre from Ingrid's former relationship that is now living with
the Sylvian's - Sascha], and the world comes form the main door every day by means of
the children; though he's not a "social animal", he still reads and listens very
much, thus feeding his spiritual side.
- slanderers still accusing him to
be a "new age" follower, but he says that his being an induist [hinduist?]
for years is not for running away from the negatives sides of life, but a sort of
continous facing them. And there are so many things to be learnt from ancient teachings
that things like new age are a shame for humanity;
- there's another reference to
David Toop's "Ocean of sounds": Sylvian as an artist who "fishes out"
from the darkness, thus deconstructing the song in an open work with the efforts of
musicians coming from all over the world, thus creating something which allows the
listeners to reflect on themselves. Sylvian admits that he didn't read the book, so he
doesn't know what it's all about. But the given description is similar with his manner of
interpreting art. "It would be terrible if my works were my autobiography, thus
allowing no space for being interpreted by the listener, without any cultural
enrichment"...."Having worked with musicians like Czukay or Talvin Singh makes
this process easier"..."When I played with Japan, music was the best way to
escape from the surronding environment. When the group split, I felt so broken, but then I
took conscience of what music could signify for me, and I followed the right
path"....Inteviewer: "...and going to San Francisco!"...DS: "Yes, but
I don't repudiate London, even if I'm not homesick and all this 80s revival is annoying.
It's good to come back from time to time, the problem is that everything is so chaotic
here. I didn't remember the name of the streets, so I got lost for the nth time".
Ciao / Fabrizio
News 04.03.99
On Tuesday, March 2nd David Sylvian vistited Berlin in order to do some promotional interviews for his new album. He did six interviews in a row for VH-1 (by Peter Wassong), Arte (European French-German TV channel), Stern (German magazine), Keyboards (German music mag), Radio Eins (Berlin radio station) and one other interview. (As soon as I know when these interviews are shown on TV I will let you know on these pages.) He was accompanied by his manager Richard Chadwick which he knows since 1976 [!] as he told us. On the very same day they flew off to Paris to do some interviews there and then on to Milan. Unfortunatly there was no occasion for me to talk to David personally because of his tight schedule. Also the interviews were done in a tiny room on the 10th floor. He only came down once to have lunch with Richard and Anja from Virgin. He is extremely slim, was all dressed in black and was friendly waving in our direction before he turned round the corner.
Peter Wassong shared his
impressions the following day on the mailing-list:
"On March 2nd, I was
privileged to interview Mr. Sylvian on behalf of VH-1 for a one hour TV interview in
Berlin.
The interview took place in a very
small interview suite, it was almost full with the camera, a chair for Mr. Sylvian, one
for me and the light equipment. When Mr. Sylvian entered the room, I was quite surprised
since I haven't seen him since the 23rd of May 88 in Cologne, where he performed during
the "In Praise of Shamans" tour. He is quite tiny, very fragile and introduced
himself with a quiet but firm: "Hello, I am David". I was well prepared, had a
lot of questions and most of them have been discussed and answered in many interviews
which were quoted on the list. But to the main things, which might interest you:
- A tour may happen but probably
not this year, maybe next year. David has no definite line-up, but he has names in mind,
which he would like to keep for himself.
- The next thing he is working on
is a compilation since he thinks that this is the right time now, having a break now from
recording (a break?). This compilation might be released in early 2000 and might contain a
re-worked version of "The Golden Way" from the Marco Polo album. In this
context, it was obvious that he is not a big fan of his
"minor" collaborations.
The only things he regards as a long-lasting quality are RTC and the work with Holger
Czukay.
- Recording new material will be
definitley focused on Ingrid's new album. That is one reason why the tour is postponed
since he wants to combine his and her work on a stage performance.
- There will be (if I understood
him right) definitley no Slow Fire live recording on CD. He has listened to the taped
material and decided to keep the memories of this tour in his heart, as well should do
those who attended the concert. David is not a big friend of live recordings anyway. He
thinks of reworking "Damage" but this will be somewhere in
the future.
- All reports of a new solo album
next year are of an entire bogus nature.
- We rarely talked about Japan's
days but when I asked him of his opinion on "Tin Drum", which I regard as the
most creative and sylvianesque Japan album, he answered: "I have no idea, I haven't
heard it for 18 years now".
- I also asked him about his
obscure quotation in "The Wire", where he said, that he might never turn back to
songwriting again. What he meant was the classic 3-minute popsong. He would like to put
things more into
context and maybe broaden the field
a little bit.
- He still likes to paint and draw,
uses 8mm film but has no plans to release anything in a book or film (exception: the
terrific EPK).
That is all I can think of as
relevant on the first glance. What impressed me most was the kindness and his quietness.
He is totally calm in himself - maybe a consequence of heavy meditation. The room had 45
degrees Celsius and less than 2 percent oxygene but David did his 3rd interview.
- Calm, interested, polite. Hats
off !
After the official part, we talked
a little bit about Holger and Russell Mills, some other stuff and made some jokes. Then he
and Richard went to their deserved lunch."
Peter Wassong
To sum it all up:
There will be no tour this
year.
There will be no video for
the single I Surrender.
There will be no release of
the Slow Fire tour. (David: "It won't work as a live album".)
There will be no compilation
this year.
There will be no
"best-of".
Pretty disappointing. But perhaps things might change when the album should take off.
A very interesting Billboard article was posted today by Dave
Jacobsen.
"Although Sylvian's patient muse has never led him to any great commercial breakthrough, he remains a flagship artist for Virgin. His relationship with the label is one of its longest, spanning nearly 20 years back to Japan's 1980 watershed LP "Gentleman Take Polaroids." Sylvian is signed to Virgin U.K. but lives in California, so the label's London and Los Angeles offices are collaborating closely on the "Dead Bees On A Cake" campaign."
"We are all working to create a sense of event around the record at retail and with showcases with David in some major cities," says Virgin co-president Ray Cooper. "And even though there may be limited promotional opportunities in other areas, this isn't just a two-week program. There is a lot of passion for David within the company. He is a mainstay of Virgin's musical culture, and we really couldn't have asked for a better album to work with."
"Managed by the London-based Opium Arts (which also publishes his songs), Sylvian may undertake a short tour later in the year in addition to the spring showcase performances. He is also preparing a compilation disc for release in 2000 that will collect many rarities, remixes, and re-performances among his solo and collaborative work not included on the deluxe Virgin boxed set from 1989, "Weatherbox."
"Among the anthology's highlights will be the long-out-of-print single "Pop Song," as well as "The Golden Way," a Sylvian track on Nicola Alesini and Pier Luigi Andreoni's new "Marco Polo" set (on the Italian Materiali Sonori label, available in North America via Allegro Corp.). In addition to the compilation, a reconstituted version of "Secrets Of The Beehive" should see reissue in 2000, and the limited-edition "Weatherbox" may be made available again."
A "reconsituted version" of Secrets of the Beehive: It seems someone must have heard my prayers. Such a great album with such a miserable sound quality.
Millicent Lai posted the whole poem
from Seamus Heaney from which David used an excerpt as the preface to Trophies II.
Postscript (from The Spirit Level)
And some time make the time to
drive out west
Into Country Clare, along the
Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the
wind
And the light are working off each
other
So that the ocean on one side is
wild
With foam and glitter, and inland
among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is
lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock
of swans,
Their feathers roughed and
ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown
headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy
underwater.
Useless to think you'll park and
capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and
strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the
car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and
blow it open.
Seamus Heaney, 1996
News 24.02.99
This is what the cover to Dead
Bees on a Cake will finally look like. (Picture taken from Paul Rymers' site). It's the
same picture I was talking of before which has been used throughout Trophies II. I heard
the cover to the single I Surrender being described as a photography of a bee taken from
below (like from under a glass table). All yellowish and mustard colour.
& It also seems that the album is again
pushed back by two weeks, so that the new release date is March 15 for the single and
March 29 (US March 30) for the album.
& There is also a so called "electronic press kit" which has been sent out to various persons in the industry, which
contains promo material of the new album plus a 14 min. video documentation done by David
and Ingrid. (So should someone have one copy left, I know a person who would be very
grateful.)
& The March issue of the German WOM Journal will have an exclusive interview with David.
& But the big news this week is
that Sylvian will be coming to town on Tuesday, March 2. He will be doing a tv special
for VH-1 here in Berlin. I don't know whether there'll be a chance for a "meet
& greet" for me, but if so you'll find my report here next week. Should you know
more about this trip or are interested in doing an interview with the man, please let me
know: [email protected]
& I nearly forgot to mention: Happy birthday David !
He turned 41 on February 23.
Here are the credits from the
album:
| I Surrender Marc Ribot: guitar Ryuichi Sakamoto: rhodes Lawrence Feldman: flute Steve Jansen: percussion Kenny Wheeler: flugelhorn David Sylvian: guitar loops, keyboards, samples, vocals Ryuichi Sakamoto + David Sylvian: string arrangement orchestrated by Sakamoto |
Dobro #1 Bill Frisell: dobro David Sylvian: keyboards, vocals |
Midnight Sun Marc Ribot: guitar Ryuichi Sakamoto: brass arrangement David Sylvian: acoustic guitar, keyboards, samples, vocals |
| Thalheim Ged Lynch: original drum track Steve Jansen: percussion loop, cymbals John Giblin: bass Kenny Wheeler: flugelhorn Tommy Barbarella: rhodes David Sylvian :drum programming, guitars, keyboards, vocals |
Godman Scooter Warner: original drum track Steve Jansen: dirty loop Marc Ribot: acoustic guitar David Sylvian: bass, drum programming, keyboards, samples, vocals |
Alphabet Angel Ryuichi Sakamoto: pseudo rhodes David Sylvian: keyboards, samples, vocals |
| Krishna Blue Talvin Singh: original tabla and percussion Steve Jansen: percussion Deepak Ram: bansuri Ryuichi Sakamoto: sampled bansuri, guitar loop Bill Frissell: acoustic guitar, dobro Steve Tibbetts: gong Ingrid Chavez: vocal David Sylvian: guitar, keyboards, percussion programming, samples, vocals |
The Shining of Things
Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian: string arrangement orchestrated by Sakamoto David Sylvian: samples, vocals |
Café Europa Steve Jansen: percussion Ingrid Chavez: vocals David Sylvian: guitar, keyboards, percussion loop, vocals |
| Pollen Path Ged Lynch: drums Marc Ribott: acoustic and slide guitar Ryuichi Sakamoto: insects David Sylvian: guitar, keyboards, samples, vocals |
All of my Mothers Names
(summers with Amma) Scooter Warner: drums John Giblin: bass Tommy Barbarella: rhodes David Sylvian: guitar, keyboards, samples |
Praise Shree Maa: vocal David Sylvian: guitars |
| Darkest Dreaming David Sylvian: guitars, keyboards, samples, vocals |
Wanderlust Ged Lynch: drums John Giblin: bass Tommy Barbarella: rhodes David Sylvian: guitar, keyboard samples, vocals |
Produced by David Sylvian
Mixed by David Sylvian with Dave Kent Engineered by Dave Kent Additional engineering David Sylvian Assitant engineers: Jacquie Turner/Matt Curry/Scott Crane studio maintenance: Dave Kent |
<snippets>
- Keesjan van Bunningen's excellent and informative site can now be reached through www.weatherbox.com
- You can now also reach my site simply by typing www.welcome.to/slowfire
- I've been asked to put up a link to a Dutch site that has a review on Gentlemen take Polaroids. http://come.to/cd-klassiekers
News 11.02.99
I received my copy of Trophies II from Lenin Imports today and it is a really beautiful book indeed. Very
much like the first volume with a fold-out cover, transparent pages and gold-bronze
prints. Just like Trophies I the follow-up is devided into several "parts" and
"steps" comprising the lyrics from "Pop Song" up to "Dead Bees on
a Cake". The book features five completely new poems. Here are the contents:
Pop Song
Part 1:
Every Colour You Are, Rain Tree Crow, Pocket Full of Change, Boat's for Burning, Blackwater, Blackcrow Hits Shoe-Shine City, Cries and Whispers, Jean the Birdman, Tallow Moon, A Victim of Stars (from Sahara Blue by Hector Zazou)
Step Five:
Heartbeat
Step Six:
The First Day
Part 2:
God's Monkey, Firepower, Brightness Falls, 20th Century Dreaming (a Shaman's Song), Damage (Bringing Down the Light)
Step Seven:
The Golden Way (from Marco Polo)
Part 3:
The Church Bells Strike... (new), Slow Fire (from the Slow Fire tour-book), Shadowland (=How Safe Is Deep? from Russell Mills record Undark)
Part 4:
I Surrender, Dobro #1, Midnight Sun, Thalheim, Godman, Alphabet Angel, Krishna Blue, The Shining of Things, Café Europa, Pollen Path, Wanderlust, Darkest Dreaming, I Do Nothing (performed live at the Slow Fire tour), Cover Me with Flowers (new)
Part 5:
When the Little One Came...(from Sakamoto's record Discord, title four "Salvation"), The Gold and Crimson Tulips (new), Snakes and Ladders (new), Gone from the Landscape (new)
What's interesting to see is that
text from "Jean the Birdman" appears to be part of the Rain Tree Crow era. Which
makes perfect sense when you look at the crow related imagery in the lyrics. Sylvian's
picture of the crow always reminded me very strongly of Ted Hughes "Crow" from
his famous volume of poetry "From the Life and Songs of the Crow". Half man,
half bird. This influence was later confessed by Sylvian in an interview with the title
"Wings of Desire" and can be read on these pages. Ted Hughes, by the way, is an
English poet who's been honoured with the title "Poet Laureate" in 1984. He's
been married to the famous American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Hughes also collaborated
with Irish poet Seamus Heaney on a few projects from whom we find a quotation at the
begining of Trophies II.
The book only has three pictures in
it: the cover photography by Shinya Fujiwara (which looks very much RTC), an illustration
from her, which I believe might also be on the cover of "Dead Bees on a Cake",
compared with the description from Peter Wassong given below. And a portrait of David
taken by his wife Ingrid Chavez whom he also dedicated the book to. The portrait is the
one which is currently on my index-page at the top. This illustration of Shinya Fujiwara I
was talking of is used countless times throughout the book: mirrored, negative, turned
upside down or taken parts from it. This picture shows a flower with a human face that is
torn out the soil. The mouth seems to be cracking like glass. You can see houses, a bird
cage with a crow (?), little boats, moons, stars and drums as if drawn by children.
There's a house with a ladder sticking out of the roof and a giant bee (?) with a face
whose nose is a blossom. Hard to describe but impossible to scan. Probably not my first
choice when it came to make a decision for an album cover. What makes the book look
interesting is the superb work from Vaughan Oliver and Chris Bigg who did the overall
design, the illustration manipulation and those great textures.
What should also be mentioned are
the lyrics that are not included in the book. I dearly miss "Promise - the Cult of
Eurydice", "Cloud #9", "Blinding Light of Heaven",
"Darshan", "Earthbound", "Endgame", "Come
Morning", "Maya", "Under Ingrid's Wheels", "The House in
Which We Live" and "Ti Ho Aspettato (I Have Waited for You)". As well as
the ones from "Little Girls with 99 Lives".
& The number of subscribers to the David
Sylvian mailing-list has again risen up to 783 people.
Date / number
99 01 31 / 783
98 09 21 / 718
97 10 12 / 653
If you too want to join the list
(which can also be received in a digest form - that means you only get one mail per day)
read the information on how to join on my "Links" pages. Click here.
Also the German music magazine Musiker Szene 2/99 has four pages on David
Sylvian (2.5 pages of text) in which he is stating that after all those years of laziness
it is time to get back to work again. "The fans have a right to it." He is also
confirming that a European tour will probably start in March and that 1999 will not only
see the release of Dead Bees on a Cake but also the release of a rarities compilation and
sort of a "best-of" album. And as if this wasn't enough he also announced that a
new studio album will be in the shops by the year 2000. Is this the Second Coming?
I want to recommend the interview in the
current issue of The Wire - English music
magazine. Even though I had to pay twice the original coverprice (£ 2.80) the article is
definitley worth it and reveals a lot of things that happened in Sylvian's life in the
recent years I haven't been aware of. 
