Flux

David Sylvian has spoken of a period of personal darkness that followed the completion of Secrets of Beehive. In 1988, the year following that album’s release, he embarked upon his first solo tour, In Praise of Shamans. ‘I knew I was going through some kind of change at that point, which is why I decided to do it,’ he said. ‘I thought it would provoke some kind of change in me, or maybe speed up the process. But by the end of the tour I was kind of in no man’s land. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore and…I didn’t want to be involved with music for a while. I just couldn’t face sitting down and writing.

‘Which is why the first project I started after that was the project with Holger, which was improvisation. I could handle that. I could handle going into the studio and just playing. And basically that’s all I’ve been doing at home, just improving my guitar playing, programming synthesisers, creating new sounds and so on, rather than actually sitting down and writing.’

Sylvian & Czukay’s first sessions together at the Can studio on the outskirts of Köln were in the winter of 1986, even if the results – Plight & Premonition – didn’t see the light of day until two years later (see ‘Plight’). The experience of creating music in Holger’s studio space, where a range of instruments were permanently set up ready to play and record, coupled with the wild-card influence of Czukay himself, resulted in nothing short of a creative high for Sylvian. The singer’s state of mind following the …Shamans live shows made returning to that environment particularly attractive.

Czukay was asked whose idea it was to pursue a follow-up to their first disc on Virgin’s subsidiary Venture label: ‘David said we shouldn’t forget it, we should continue it, and he was right.’

‘I went over to see Holger at a point when I needed something to motivate me into creativity again,’ reflected Sylvian. The opportunity was embraced ‘in the hope of geeing myself up a bit, getting myself back into the work. I went over at Christmas last year [1988] for ten days in the hope of producing an album in that time. Because the last one was produced in three or four days. So I thought, “give it ten days and see what happens.” And again the pieces came about quite easily, but then working with Holger they do tend to do that.

‘I mean they do come very easily because he’s not looking for performance in the normal sense of the word. He’s looking for a kind of naïvety. The stage just before you get to performing, where you are actually dabbling almost with ideas. And it’s that kind of very naïve stage where you are just finding your way with whatever that he tries to capture, when you are least aware of him recording it. Which I find at times extremely frustrating, because you feel, “let me do it one more time, Holger! I’ve just got it now, you know, let’s have one more run at that.” And he’ll be: “No, it caught something of you which you don’t recognise, but which is something I’m looking for.” And that’s educational and frustrating at the same time. ‘Flux’ was very much in that vein.’

Czukay’s approach of capturing emerging ideas and avoiding unnecessary finessing might have prompted irritation but Sylvian acknowledged the positive, conceding: ‘he’s adamant about capturing this essence.’ Perhaps they shared a common vision, even if their preferred means of achieving it might have differed. ‘The way Holger works is quite different to the way I work. He’s not looking for good, technical strong performances. He prefers the moments…when you’re…unsure, getting lost and finding your way…Holger brings out a kind of honesty, a genuineness that, as professional musicians, we mask a great deal.

‘In that respect, Holger and I have a lot in common. Our records are made intuitively, not intellectually.’

This time around though there was something significantly different about the circumstances. Previously, Sylvian had visited Czukay with the intention of recording a vocal for the latter’s forthcoming album, but impromptu experimentation in the studio led them instead to create an unplanned instrumental opus. Now the objective was different. ‘My intention from the outset was to record an album, whereas with Plight & Premonition, it was a spontaneous happening. Therefore, the second time, the atmosphere was slightly different, but the approach and techniques were the same. We sat down and started to create an aural environment or atmosphere. We began with ‘Mutability’, which was very easy to record; so easy it was incredible. A series of first takes, a couple of keyboard overdubs, four guitar overdubs, and it was finished in one day! ‘Flux’ was more complicated and in fact wasn’t an easy piece to get right. The basic track was me, Holger and Jaki [Liebezeit], and again a first take.’

In an essay for The Quietus to coincide with the 2018 re-release of the work on the Grönland label, Sylvian gave more detail about the first stages of the track. ‘After the tour, I’d set up a system in my home in London where I’d play off of a looping sequence created on a Prophet VS, accompanying myself on guitar which I’d become more attached to as instrument of choice. I also set up a looping system, not so different from those used on the instrumental portion of Gone To Earth, which allowed me to build upon a seemingly ever ascending sequence of chords with solo lines upping the almost keening nature of the content.

‘Prior to setting off for Köln, I’d asked Holger to hire a VS just in case it might come in useful. I’d used the studio’s PPG [a German-built synthesiser] on ‘Premonition’ and loved the results, but didn’t know how much more I could get out of the machine…At one point I plugged in the VS and my guitar and just started to cycle around the patterns I’d been using to help me meditate or lose myself in for periods of time. Again, Holger had the multi-tracks in record without my being aware of it. At the end of the cycle he said, “perfect, let’s start from here.” We began to think about a pulse for the piece and Jaki, who’d often drop into the studio, was asked to supply something appropriate. He played a high pitched, handheld drum.’ (2018)

‘The first take…was mainly Jaki playing percussion, I was playing guitar and put some loops together and Holger was working with a dictaphone. And it was a real… just a rough run through as far as I was concerned. I thought we were just testing one another out to see where we were going with it. And at the end of the take I said, “not bad, but I think we can see where we are going now, let’s do that again.” And Holger was so enthusiastic about the take that we had, the dynamics that Jaki had brought into the piece, he really picked up on that and wanted just to pursue it. And so we worked on it, and it took a lot of work to make it happen because there wasn’t a lot there other than Jaki’s dynamics, you know. You had to work around that and create dynamics to accompany the percussion so it made sense in some way…which I found difficult I must admit.’

Sylvian felt an adjustment was necessary to Liebezeit’s drum sound to make the track work: ‘I found the pitch to be problematic and so lowered it with the aid of a harmonizer. More overdubs were created [Michael Karoli ‘dropped in and added guitar’ – the third member of Can to perform on the piece] but the process felt less uninhibited than on our previous venture. We were “composing” the work with what I guess one could describe as fully consciousness faculties at work; self editing, second guessing. But this wasn’t outperforming the virtual somnambulistic, trance-like, creation of our prior work.’ (2018)

‘The more we worked on it, the less ambient it became; and thus we had to rethink the original ideas which had resulted in ‘Plight’, ‘Premonition’ and ‘Mutability’.’

‘Plight’ had, in fact, been worked on significantly by Holger after the initial improvisations, in contrast to ‘Premonition’ which David felt happier with as being more faithful to the original performances. A similar pattern was emerging this time. ‘‘Flux’ is Holger’s piece and ‘Mutability’ is mine,’ said Sylvian. ‘We worked on ‘Flux’ an awful lot.’

‘There was so much noise on the original take, coming from the dictaphone and other sources, that I was struggling to clean it up so that we had a good basis to work from. But again, this doesn’t affect Holger and Holger really enjoys these sounds, and for him they are part of the music.’

‘David is a very good musician,’ said Czukay, ‘I think highly of him. Sometimes he is a little bit pedantic, but this depends on his nature. There are people who see over something, but he is more sensitive and I accept that. On the other hand he has a certain aesthetic sense that I can learn from him…He’s pedantic about some crackles on the master tape which I don’t mind, but if it bothers him, it’s okay.’

Sylvian: ‘Nobody else would have, I think, taken the risk of leaving edits in in the way that Holger did. In some ways they can work against you. I find on ‘Flux’ for example there are so many… so much buzzing and noise coming from the studio in general it can irritate me an enormous amount. And Holger doesn’t hear them, and when you do point them out he says, “Oh, I like that!” So we are quite different in that way. I’m constantly working to try and free us of all these electronic faults, and he’s adding to it all the time; so we are kind of constantly battling with one another [laughter].

‘It’s ok now, when I listen to it now I can appreciate that as well. It’s very much a part of being there and the atmosphere of that place at that time, which is in a way what it’s all about. But I guess it’s my background, I come from the other side where you’re taught that that shouldn’t happen and to free yourself of all that.’

As the track opens we hear voices from Holger’s shortwave radio ‘samplings’, the degraded sound of interlopers from a wider world. Czukay studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen alongside Jon Hassell, another of Sylvian’s ’80s collaborators. Hassell once described how Stockhausen made use of random signals from a transistor radio in class: ‘One of the exercises he used to give us was to play little bursts of shortwave radio with all the static and noise and everything and say, “Notate it in terms of statistical methods”.’ (2009)

Czukay embedded the use of such found sounds into his own creative approach. ‘Using shortwave radio is a strong mood thing,’ said Holger, ‘like the uniqueness of a sunset, a special atmosphere which you got once and can never get back again. You have to be grateful for that, and you have to respect it and discipline yourself in the way of devotion. Yes, you should listen and work with the radio in terms of devotion. If you have reached a point where you don’t know what to do, then the radio puts you in a position to listen and to react on something, and possibly to turn down many of the decisions you have made before. The art of minimalism is always important.’

As ‘Flux’ begins, the barely-tuned-in voices from beyond are offset by translucent synths and the gleaming clarity of the guitar sound, with Jaki Liebezeit’s rhythm providing continuity and forward momentum. Percussion was not a feature to be heard in the drifting atmospherics of Sylvian and Czukay’s previous album, nor indeed in the accompanying ‘Mutability’. The chiming guitar part and gorgeously understated bass riff provide recurring themes.

‘It started off as a drifting atmospheric piece but became more musical,’ said Sylvian at the time. ‘Musical events started happening, and therefore we had to change our approach to it completely about half way through. And even having finally finished the piece it straddles somewhere between the two: of like a piece of music with dynamics, and a piece that just floats by you creating an atmosphere…If you are listening to it with concentration it gets to one point about a third of the way through where things stop happening. And that’s when you start to drift again: you know, imagination starts wandering. And then suddenly you are drawn back into it as the events start coming together towards the end of the piece. Which I found odd to begin with. I’m still not sure about my feelings towards that piece.’

Sylvian was certainly less than satisfied with the track immediately after the initial sessions. Karoli’s ‘aggressive, razor’s edge guitar’ had added dynamic but he knew something was missing. ‘After working for ten days on the pieces we mixed them. I came back to London, and I was happy with ‘Mutability’ but ‘Flux’ wasn’t happening at all. And I felt that it needed something more – because these events had started coming into the piece of music. We’d mixed it as an ambient piece, or I’d mixed it as an ambient piece, and it wasn’t making sense.

‘Suddenly you’d have this kind of abrasive guitar coming in and it would be too disturbing so you’d have to sort of make up your mind, what was it going to be? What was its function? So I thought trumpet or flugelhorn could work in there, and because we work on a very tight budget I was trying to think of people in Holger’s locale, people nearby who could become involved in the work.

‘Holger often talks about Karlheinz Stockhausen, how well he knows him, how he studied with him and so on, and I thought well he must know Markus [Karlheinz’s son]. So I called him and put the idea to him and he was really enthusiastic, he’d never worked with him before and he thought, “Well, this could be wonderful.” Although I think he’s ridiculously underused in the piece, because he’s such an incredible player. And what we really needed from him was way below his capabilities in a sense. But it was fascinating to work with him. I’d love to work with him in the future and maybe use his capabilities to the fore, which I don’t think we even touched on with this.’

Sylvian later reflected with a little embarrassment that Markus ‘seemed bemused that so little was being asked of him as a performer. “No Marcus, you’re playing too much harmonic variation with unnecessary expressiveness…” but was gracious and humble throughout.’ (2018)

Understated as it may be, the brass certainly elevates the track, as does the seemingly uncredited woodwind which appears around the 10 min 30 seconds mark (Jaki Liebezeit plays African flute on ‘Mutability’, perhaps this is again him). There’s a mystical transcendence that is heightened by a passing reference to ‘espirito santo’, the Holy Spirit, and Holger whispering, ‘All roads are leading into one’, reminiscent of his ‘Beware of hidden snares’ from ‘Backwaters’ on Brilliant Trees.

‘Emotionally, the subtitles give a hint of how I personally responded to what was happening on the record,’ said Sylvian, ‘Flux’ carrying the descriptor ‘A big, bright colourful world’. ‘The music originally had lyrics that Holger and I were going to narrate. For Holger, the piece represents his fascination with the unknown, tuning into radio stations from far-off places when he was young, hearing things he didn’t understand. All of this fired his imagination, and I picked up on this wonder for the real and imaginary worlds of childhood very quickly.’

In his essay for The Quietus Sylvian attributed some of the difficulties with this recording to Holger being in ‘predictably high spirits, but these were aided and abetted by a temporary addiction to cocaine which, although I’d been clean for some time, I felt partially responsible for. Holger was witty, conversational, filled with anecdotes and jokes at the best of times (he claimed he’d discovered a sense of humour at aged 40) but on the drug the chatter was ramped up to the point where little work was getting accomplished…A certain lack of focus, the constant banter, took its toll.’

Despite the struggles, once the piece was completed Sylvian seemed happy enough with it, inviting listeners to open up to the music and experience it without preconceptions. ‘‘Flux’ isn’t daunting and inaccessible,’ he emphasised. ‘People should decide what they want from it without fearing it’s too abstract. If they get something “superficial” from it, fine. You don’t have to respond in a certain way. It’s definitely not precious, either. I hate that.’

As a listener, divorced from the all the frustrations of the track’s difficult birth, I’ve always appreciated its distinctiveness when compared with the other three pieces from the pair’s ambient recordings. I can also imagine how these working methods signal a pathway towards the goal of an improvisation-based album with the ex-members of Japan, Rain Tree Crow being the project that would follow.

For Sylvian there was, however, a lingering feeling that on this occasion things had been over-wrought and what previously had been created intuitively had this time been manufactured. ‘It wasn’t an easy work to mix. I now wish Holger had been left alone with it, to go to town on the material in the way he had with ‘Plight’. I’m not sure he was in the right frame of mind to do so but I believe that, given time, he’d have wielded a greater magic,’ adding tantalisingly, ‘I anticipate there being attempts buried someplace in his archive.’ (2018)

For my playlist I like to accompany ‘Flux’ with the title track from Holger’s 1981 album On the Way to the Peak of Normal. Jaki Liebezeit is again present amongst the floating concoction of instruments and fragments of voices, a gentle hint toward the possibilities that Holger might bring to Sylvian’s sound world.

‘Flux (A big , bright, colourful world)’

Holger Czukay – guitar, bass, radio, dictaphone, voice; Michael Karoli – guitars; Jaki Liebezeit – percussion; Michi – voice; Markus Stockhausen – flugelhorn; David Sylvian – guitar, keyboards

Composed by David Sylvian & Holger Czukay

Mixed by Sylvian/Czukay/Tinner

Produced by David Sylvian & Holger Czukay. From Flux & Mutability, Venture, 1989

Recorded at Can Studios, Köln, Germany 1988/89

All artist quotes are from articles in 1989/1990 unless otherwise indicated. Full sources and acknowledgments can be found here.

The featured image is a photograph by Nick White of Holger Czukay and David Sylvian, 1988

Download links: ‘Flux (A big, bright, beautiful world)’ (Apple); ‘On the Way to the Peak of Normal’ (Apple)

Physical media links: Plight & Premonition/Flux & Mutability (2018 re-issue) (Grönland) (Amazon – cd) (burningshed – vinyl) (burningshed – cd); On the Way to the Peak of Normal (Amazon)

Flux & Mutability featured contributions from Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli. Tell us a little about witnessing first hand (most of) Can at work in their natural habitat, Can Studios?
‘If I were to answer this as I imagine Robert Fripp might, I’d say the experience was a mixture of exhilaration, frustration, dedication, and hard work. In other words, a typical day in the life of a musician.’ David Sylvian, 2018

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