Author: thevistablogger

Gone to Earth

‘the spirit coming down and taking physical form’

In 1986 the oncoming age of downloads and streaming which would reduce the impact of album cover art to that of a mere thumbnail was way beyond comprehension. The cd was rising in popularity but was still a minority format, certainly beyond my student budget at the time. When David Sylvian’s Gone to Earth was released, LP sleeves were an art form in themselves, especially the glorious expanse of the gatefold. There was something so tangible and satisfying about holding and studying the record cover as the vinyl spun on your treasured hi-fi. For the duration of a side of music you were settled in one place, enjoying the full package that the artist presented.

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Wasn’t I Joe? – I’m Too Mad to Let You Know (Sign the Papers)

‘the ghosts of who we used to be’

The news that David Sylvian would be touring the Blemish album came as a complete surprise to me. Live performance had often been decried by the singer as a far less fulfilling activity than time in studio, albeit his early ’90s work with Robert Fripp hread shifted this perspective somewhat. The 2001/2002 Everything and Nothing shows were still recent memories and with the move away from a major label, the financing required to make touring viable seemed a remote possibility – it had been borderline before with losses accumulated from the US shows in 2002.

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Snow Borne Sorrow – Gone from the Landscape

‘a glorious piece of composition’

The final chapter of David Sylvian’s second volumesample of lyrics and poetry, Trophies II, contains a selection of compositions conceived as poems rather than words to be sung to music. The final piece is entitled ‘Gone from the Landscape’, and I remember how it pulled me up short when I read it for the first time. This was, after all, a volume published early in 1999 and containing the lyrics to Dead Bees on a Cake, undoubtedly some of the most joyful Sylvian has ever penned. Of course, the darkness is always lurking close to the surface, but here at the end of the book a shadow is cast heavy:

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Darshan (translucent remix by The Grid)

‘atmospheric, ambient and electronic’

It was at The Royal Albert Hall in London in December 1993 that I became aware that there was to be a mini-album release by Sylvian/Fripp, Darshan. This would be the only occasion that I would see David Sylvian and Robert Fripp share the stage, their earlier touring incarnation in a trio with Trey Gunn never having visited the UK. As we took our place in the stalls, full of anticipation for the first of two London shows on The Road to Graceland tour, set on each seat was a postcard announcing the new release – which would be in the shops the following week!

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The God of Single Cell Organisms

‘the muscle that connects me with the world’

Two voices share the listener’s focus on the opening track of Uncommon Deities, Jan Bang and Erik Honoré’s reimagination of the audio-visual installation of the same name staged at their Punkt Festival in 2011. First, David Sylvian reads Paal-Helge Haugen’s poem ‘The God of Single Cell Organisms’ in English translation, his precise diction crisply conveying the poet’s characterisation of a forgotten lesser deity who ‘in his impotence…seeks refuge among the microbes.’ As we grapple with the concept of a god who is so insignificant that ‘we cannot find him there, with our immense microscopes,’ a tight burst of bowed strings serves as the introduction to the second voice.

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