Russell Mills

Silver Moon – Silver Moon over Sleeping Steeples

‘Just glorious. Transporting. Mesmerising.’

Gone to Earth draws to a close with its most musically up-beat track. Probably the first radio play of ‘Silver Moon’ was on London’s Capital Radio at the close of a disappointingly brief interview with David ‘Kid’ Jensen, who had indulged in much more in-depth discussions with David Sylvian during his prior stint as evening host on BBC Radio One. Speaking a few weeks before the release of the album, Sylvian introduced the track saying, ‘I think it’s quite a romantic piece. It’s almost a love song… It’s the nearest I’ve got to writing one for a while anyway…’

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice

‘subtle shifts of perception’

“The quality of art is that it makes people who are otherwise always looking outward, turn inward.” The Dalai Lama

The above quotation headed David Sylvian’s artist ‘statement’ in the 1991 book of the Ember Glance: The Permanence of Memory installation, the centrepiece of a boxed set commemorating the event held in Tokyo the previous year. Sylvian expanded upon the thought in his own reflections:

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.

Ember Glance

‘ideas of space, time and memory’

In the sumptuously presented book that came as part of the Ember Glance box set, before the reader sets eyes on anything of the installation itself, there is a section entitled ‘The Lakes: preparation’. Included here are treated photographs taken by The Douglas Brothers. A portrait of Ian Walton whose gloriously textural daubs of paint would grace the huge final wall in the finished display. Blurred frames of Sylvian in the Cumbrian outdoors. Hands sifting through rocks, twigs and bones, collating material to be incorporated in a public exhibition that will be staged over 5,000 miles away in Tokyo’s docks.

Epiphany

‘minor axioms of major importance’

In October 2019 I travelled to the Lake District in the North West of England, my first visit for some years. Accommodation was a rented cottage overlooking lake Coniston whose waters reflected the tones and activity of the overarching skies; one moment aggravated by the falling rain, in another glinting back transient sunlight from whence it came. On the far shore stood a grand country house, at dusk the golden lights from its windows calling out invitingly when not obscured by autumn mist. This is Brantwood, former home of John Ruskin and the catalyst for the visit, for a few weeks home to Russell Mills’ installation, Happenstance.

REPRESS OF COLOURED VINYLS

OUT NOW FROM LUCRECIA DALT feat. DAVID SYLVIAN

Lucrecia’s new album A Danger to Ourselves is out now. All tracks produced by Lucrecia Dalt & David Sylvian, mixed by David Sylvian.

Sylvian also contributes vocal and feedback guitar to ‘Cosa Rara’ and electric guitar solo for ‘Covenstead Blues’:

Second edition repress of ‘Cosa Rara (feat. David Sylvian)’ with alternative artwork. Note that this vinyl also contains an extended mix of the ‘dopamine dub’ by Matias Aguayo, featuring David Sylvian (i.e. a different version from the first single release):