Tag: Chris Bigg

Bamboo Houses

‘excited by sound’

In 1984, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra released their album Broadcasting from Home on the Editions EG label. A familiar name listed in the accompanying sleeve-notes was that of Ryuichi Sakamoto, with a co-composition credit for the track ‘Heartwind’. The PCO’s leader, Simon Jeffes, had already enjoyed a long association with Japan by this time, his first visit having been in 1972. ‘It’s as if I discovered myself there and became more confident, musically and personally,’ he said. ‘That trip to Japan was a very formative experience which I expressed in writing. That’s how the Penguin Cafe was conceived. Really it’s a state of mind, but I started writing about this place where you would feel at home and just be yourself. You could meet other people and some kind of home music would be played by an orchestra or a band. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is now playing that music.’

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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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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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Thalheim – The Church Bells Strike

‘the rebirth of love’

‘Thalheim is a place in Germany,’ states David Sylvian factually on the promotional interview cd that was provided to journalists when Dead Bees on a Cake was at last released by Virgin. ‘A place where another famous Indian saint lives and receives people from around the world. I visited her there and the song touches upon that and my relationship with her.

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