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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Nothing is Happening Everywhere

‘approaching an apocalyptic noir’

March 2012. Alerted by one of the online communities, it’s one of those moments when something appears totally out of the blue. For the most part, new material is advertised weeks or months in advance and there is opportunity for anticipation and some research into new musical partnerships. Not this time. There on soundcloud is a new account with just one track uploaded, ‘Nothing is Happening Everywhere’, credited to L A N D featuring David Sylvian.

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Life in Tokyo

‘propulsive repetition’

In the liner notes to his 1989 Sound and Vision retrospective collection, David Bowie recalls how ‘one day in Berlin, Eno came running in and said, “I have heard the sound of the future.” And I said, “Come on, we’re supposed to be doing it right now.” He said, “No, listen to this,” and he puts on ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer. Eno had gone bonkers over it, absolutely bonkers. He said, “This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.” Which was more or less right.’

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Flux

A big, bright, colourful world

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.

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Blemish (remixed by Akira Rabelais) – End Times

Connecting to something ineffable

On the homepage of David Sylvian’s new label there was a link to the imprint’s ‘Mission Statement’. ‘Samadhisound came into being as one possible blueprint for the future, intuition taking precedence over business sense and game plan,’ wrote Sylvian. ‘I don’t make long term plans as I surrender that part of my life to guru. But if I allow myself to dream I dream of a label that gives freedom to artists and musicians, creating a “safe house” for the nurturing of ideas. It will be home to much of my work and the work of my brother Steve Jansen. We will also sit at the helm as producers to a small group of artists who we hope will find a home at samadhisound. We’ll encourage projects that break new ground, and support those that bring a unique slant to an existing field of enquiry. Aesthetically that field is wide open as is the nature and diversity of the projects.’

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