Steve Jansen

Nightporter

‘influenced by something relatively untouched’

Teenage musical memories often take hold for a lifetime. Early in the ’80s a friend of mine held a party at his family’s home. These were always good nights, an opportunity to spend time with friends outside of sixth form classes and the common room at school. A time to enjoy the music that was in and around the charts, and favourite past tracks from Bowie and others. At the end of the evening, most people having by now drifted away, someone took out the vinyl of Gentlemen Take Polaroids and dropped the needle mid-way through side B for ‘Nightporter’. I knew the song, of course, but here it was being played on a quality sound system and at a volume that wouldn’t have been possible back at home. The person who selected it then sat cross-legged on the floor, head bowed, eyes closed, transfixed by the music.

Awakening (Songs from the Tree Tops)

‘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.’

Ancient Evening – Incantation

‘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.’

Bamboo Music

A common language in music

1982 started out with Japan on hiatus. Their Visions of China tour came to an end with a show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 27 December 1981, the dates having been overshadowed – at least off-stage – by tensions between band members, in particular between David Sylvian and Mick Karn. ‘Everyone has started on individual projects and Japan doesn’t exist for the next four or five months while we get on with other work,’ Sylvian told an interviewer the following March. ‘So most of what I do and what I think about revolves around what I’m going to do on my own…Steve [Jansen] and Mick [Karn] are doing session work at the moment. They’re performing with some Japanese artists who have come to England to record and Mick’s then going to do a solo single and I think Steve is too.’

Wasn’t I Joe? – I’m Too Mad to Let You Know (Sign the Papers)

‘the ghosts of who we used to be’

The news that David Sylvian would be touring the Blemish album came as a complete surprise to me. Live performance had often been decried by the singer as a far less fulfilling activity than time in studio, albeit his early ’90s work with Robert Fripp hread shifted this perspective somewhat. The 2001/2002 Everything and Nothing shows were still recent memories and with the move away from a major label, the financing required to make touring viable seemed a remote possibility – it had been borderline before with losses accumulated from the US shows in 2002.

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):