Fourteen Years Of Silence

I listen to very little radio these days, so it was a YouTube trawl that landed me David Sylvian's audio diary, extracted from Mary Anne Hobbs' Spirit Of Sylvian special on her BBC Radio 6 Music show, first broadcast on 27th October.  

 

The full show runs to just under an hour, with a playlist including influencers and the influenced such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Holger Czukay, Roxy Music, Burial, Savages, Goldie and Pa Salieu.

 

Raised On Radio has posted David's self-authored piece on YouTube and it's a compelling listen, 26 minutes spanning everything from his departure from Virgin at the end of the 20th century, the birth and death of his own label Samadhi Sounds, his collaborations, photography, looking back (and not looking back), Japan's legacy and a refreshing view on when and why artists wish to sample his work.

 

None of that begins to do it justice, give it a listen:

 

What immediately struck me is David Sylvian's voice. I have all of David's solo albums on Virgin, but I realise that the last album proper that I bought was 2005's The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter, itself a remix of 2003 album Blemish. His singing voice in that time was becoming richer, deeper, but that was twenty years ago.

It had been even longer since I'd heard David's speaking voice. What I remember best is the London accent from early 80s interviews when in Japan:

 

And I found this great clip of an interview with Gary Crowley in 1993, promoting his collaboration with Robert Fripp, The First Day. The voice is more refined but still recognisably David Sylvian.

 

At the end of his piece for Mary Anne Hobbs,. David apologises for his Mid-Atlantic accent, shaped by living in America for nearly three decades and "inevitable, but it would annoy the [bleep] out of me if I had to listen to it."

Yes, it was a bit of a shock at first but once David starts speaking, I found it impossible to stop listening. I'm on my third listen at the time of writing this post and each visit reveals another fascinating layer of insight that I missed the first time around. An essential listen, whether you're a David Sylvian fan or just have an interest in the inner workings of an artist.

It was a short hop from there to another YouTube gem, offering up 40 minutes of raw, in-the-studio footage of the Berlin recording sessions for David's first solo album, Brilliant Trees. Again, a must-see.

 

David's last solo album proper was 2009's Manafon but as mentioned in the BBC 6 Music audio, he collaborated with Franz Wright and Christian Fennesz on There's A Light That Enters Houses With No Other House In Sight, released in 2014. You can view an extract - Wintersleep - or listen to the full 64-minute album.

 

On 28th October, Twinkle³, released a new album, Upon This Fleeting Dream. I haven't yet heard anything other than the closing track of Side 1, If I leave No Trace, which features a spoken word contribution from David Sylvian, but it's an intriguing three-and-a-half minutes.

In the opening section of David's Spirit Of Sylvian audio piece, he reflected on whether accepting Mary Anne Hobbs' invitation was the right thing to do as he hadn't spoken to the media in 14 years, even longer for radio or TV. He closes by saying that he's "not going to listen back to what I have spoken to you about because I know if I do, I'll delete it [laughs]... this is inevitable."

What was perhaps also inevitable is that less than half an hour in David Sylvian's company has reignited my love and admiration for his artistic integrity and vision but also his ability to not take himself too seriously. I'm now digging back into my existing Japan and David Sylvian but also inspired to look forward to catching up with the solo records and collaborations that I've missed in the last thirty years.