‘the first step in a new approach’
‘This short film was shot in two days of November 1984 in and around the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. A large part of the music was completed during that same month and recorded over a period of three days. I later updated the material in London, in an attempt to elaborate on the theme started earlier in Japan, and to further improve the quality of the soundtrack.’
David Sylvian, August 1985
‘words with your inner self’
Asked about the origins of his interest in shamanism in a 1986 interview, David Sylvian responded, ‘I’m not sure, I can’t really remember. I was reading a great deal on different cults and spiritual groups and so on, and the word shaman kept cropping up. And I bought one book – The Shaman Magician or something like that – and that really introduced me to that idea.’
Continue reading “Awakening (Songs from the Tree Tops)”‘a sense of fascination’
Words with the Shaman was released at the end of 1985, both as a standalone 12″ vinyl and as part of the limited-edition cassette, Alchemy – An Index of Possibilities. David Sylvian’s sleeve-note on the vinyl placed the recordings in context: ‘The compositions compiled for the E.P. were conceived as musical footnotes to some of the themes started earlier on the album Brilliant Trees, and were developed as a collaborative group effort for which I am very much indebted to all who took part.’
Continue reading “Ancient Evening – Incantation”‘exploring a different side of yourself’
‘Travelling clears your mind, inspires you with new ideas, or at least helps you pinpoint ideas you’ve had for a long time,’ David Sylvian told the NME in August 1984. ‘If you simply isolate yourself in a room in London, for example, you become too insular, you can no longer centre on the point you are trying to make. You can only struggle for so long in an isolated room before it becomes impossible for you to be objective about it. Travelling helps clear that, you begin to see things more clearly.’
Continue reading “Preparations for a Journey”
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