Tag: Robert Fripp

Alphabet Angel

‘unconditional love’

At the peak of Japan’s popularity in 1982, David Sylvian was posed a question during an interview with The Face: ‘Do you like children?’ The 24-year old’s response was: ‘I hate children. Children in airplanes is my biggest hate, I just cannot stand having children in such close contact and not being able to get away from them.’ Whilst some might sympathise regarding experiences when flying, Sylvian’s outspokenness reminds me how young he and his fellow band-members were at the height of their success, and how they had existed within a relatively insular world to that point.

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Showing the Wound (A Will to Health) – Steel Cathedrals

‘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

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Answered Prayers

‘more than a fascination’

Eight Days a Week was an arts review programme broadcast on BBC2 on which host Robin Denselow discussed the latest music, movies and books with a small invited panel. The show had a relatively short run in 1983 and 1984, but that timing allowed for the release of David Sylvian’s debut solo LP, Brilliant Trees, to be a subject of discussion. Among the guests that evening was former Be-Bop Deluxe front-man and guitarist, Bill Nelson.

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Protopunk – Brightness Falls

‘live in lightness’

Trey Gunn knew that he wanted to pursue a life in music and, despite the prevailing spirit of contemporary culture, was keen to develop an understanding of the fundamentals. ‘I went to the University of Oregon and I studied composition. I had played classical music as a kid, like from 6 or 7, and played Bach or Bartok or whatever you did back then on piano, and transitioned to bass and acoustic guitar. I was in punk rock/new wave bands in the late ’70s and it was counter to the culture to study music. It was, “I’m going to go my own way,” and, “I’m NOT going to learn!” – I’m talking about the punk culture – and sometimes that was cool, sometimes that would produce unusual things…but I still felt like if I was going to be a professional, whatever that meant… basically on track to get really good at something, then I should learn about the materials, even though it was counter to everyone I knew… I thought, if I was a writer, I would want to learn how a sentence is structured; it just makes sense, even if you are going to be deviant… I wanted to learn more stuff and get exposed to more things.’

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Jean the Birdman – Weathered Wall – live

‘a real rapport’

I was living some four hours’ drive from London in the mid-1990s. There was nobody I knew in the West Country of England who had heard of David Sylvian, yet alone followed his musical activities. Discovering news was difficult and I was always concerned that I’d miss something significant. Bamboo magazine had finished, its Winter 1992 edition being the last. For nearly a decade this fan-run labour of love had been a much-valued source of information and insight, its closure marking the start of Medium – an excellent official newsletter and label concentrating on the activities of Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn.

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