A Danger To Ourselves

Ten songs featuring David Sylvian, spanning his first solo single in 1984, an unexpected collaboration earlier this year and eight more diversions over the past four decades.

This is a sequel of sorts to Saturday's post, which focused on the Top 10 Jaoan songs challenge, posted by Top10Nathan on Bluesky. 

Whilst I enjoyed but didn't participate in it, I couldn't resist the inevitable follow up challenge, to post the Top 10 David Sylvian songs.

It was a fairly open brief, spanning not just David's solo albums (of which there are plenty) but also his collaborative efforts, including his 1993 partnership with Robert Fripp, the Nine Horses collective, and many, many guests appearances with other artists. 

I didn't have a defined sequence of ten songs to start, rather a short list of about 15-20, which I was deciding on instinct for the first five days, by which time the final five and order had been settled on.

These are not my Top 10 David Sylvian songs: there are far too many for that; I could have pretty much posted the whole of Brilliant Trees for example, and 'padded out' with a few more songs. 

I also imposed a couple of rules: vocal songs only, no instrumental pieces, and only one pick from each release; not that it made the shortlisting process any easier.

I knew from the start that the opening song would be Cosa Rora by Lucrecia Dalt, which came out on 28th February 2025. It's a great song as it is, but the completely unexpected spoken word passage by David at the end seals the deal. Check out the EP on Bandcamp, if you haven't already.

I also knew that the selection would end with Waterfront, from 1987's Secrets Of The Beehive, another album that I could have posted in its entirety for the majority of my 'Top 10'. 

My one song rule meant that I had to forego other brilliant songs such as Orpheus and Let The Happiness In, though others picked up on these and more on Bluesky.

It had to be Waterfront, though. The piano and strings arrangement by Ryuichi Sakamoto is sublime, and David's voice is so rich and deep that it gets me every single time. I've been moved to tears on occasion when the song has caught me in a moment.

To me, Red Guitar and Darshan represent the populist end of the Sylvian spectrum. The former was such a striking solo single in 1984, and a stark change of direction from where Japan had been heading. In sequencing Red Guitar as the immediate follow up to a new song, I also appreciate how timeless David's music is. Hearing the opening two songs for the first time, I think you would be hard pressed to guess that forty one years separated them.

Darshan appears on the David Sylvian and Robert Fripp album, The First Day. The original studio version is over seventeen minutes long. I instead went for a remix by The Grid, which clocks in at a 'mere' sixteen minutes and eight seconds. 

After an ambient introduction for three minutes, the beats kick in and David's voice and Robert's guitar lock into the groove, to great effect. I love Dave Ball and Richard Norris' partnership, but it's one of my favourites of their many remixes. 

I don't know if this was a label prompt (both were with Virgin at the time, alongside The Future Sound Of London, who also provide an epic reconstruction) but I'm siure that it would have needed David and Robert's buy in. Either way,  I'm glad that the Darshan EP came to be.

The natural follow on is 1989 one-off Pop Song, which of course is anything but...and yet. I loved it then as I do now, but Pop Song's quirky time signature and sudden pauses and, despite it's non-conformist structure and against all odds, for being an ear worm. 

I've paired a couple more collaborations, separated by a decade. David continued to work with his former Japan bandmates, including early contributions to Mick Karn's solo career. Buoy was the single from 1986 album Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters, and it's great, though for this selection, I've gone for When Love Walks In which I think could also have been a contender for a promotional release.

David first collaborated with Russell Mills on 1991's Ember Glance (The Permanence Of Memory), comprising a near 33-minute piece The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and Epiphany, just shy of two and a half minutes. 

David returned half a decade later to guest on Russell's first album under his alter ego Undark. Notorious for returning to, refining and reworking his music, the Undark song How Safe Is Deep? is no exception, appearing a few years later on the Godman EP in two variations, re-titled Shadowland.

The rest of the selection comprises songs from the 1990s and 2000s, perhaps a period that many are less familiar with, though none the less rewarding in my experience. Dead Bees On A Cake (1999) and Blemish (2003) particularly resonate with me and whilst I've only relatively recently come to Nine Horses, it's another rich and deep addition to the Sylvian oeuvre. The song pick here features Stina Nordenstam, who proves a perfect vocal foil for David.

For something that began in a very loosely planned way, I'm really happy with the end result. Far from comprehensive, yet I think it captures the essence of why David Sylvian's body of work is so challenging and so rewarding. As ever, you'll be the judge of that!

1) Cosa Rara (Single Version): Lucrecia Dalt ft. David Sylvian (2025)

2) Red Guitar (Album Version): David Sylvian (1984)

3) Darkest Dreaming: David Sylvian (1999)

4) When Love Walks In: Mick Karn ft. David Sylvian (1986)

5) How Safe Is Deep?: Undark ft. David Sylvian (1996)

6) Darshan (The Road To Graceland) (Translucent Remix By The Grid aka Dave Ball & Richard Norris): David Sylvian & Robert Fripp (1993)

7) Pop Song: David Sylvian (1989)

8) Wonderful World (Album Version): Nine Horses ft. Stina Nordenstam (2005)

9) Late Night Shopping (Album Version): David Sylvian (2003)

10) Waterfront: David Sylvian (1987)

1984: Red Guitar EP / Brilliant Trees: 2

1986: Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters: 4

1987: Secrets Of The Beehive: 10

1989: Pop Song EP: 7

1993: Darshan EP: 6

1996: Undark 3396: 5

1999: Dead Bees On A Cake: 3

2003: Blemish: 9

2005: Snow Borne Sorrow: 8

2025: Cosa Rara EP: 1

A Danger To Ourselves (58:48) (KF) (Mega)

If you like this, why not try Nostalgia Burns, my previous David Sylvian selection from February 2023? I didn't look at it prior to picking my 10 songs for Nathan's Bluesky challenge but incredibly I've managed to avoid duplicating any of the above tracklist. Even more incredibly, I managed to fit 11 songs into under 47 minutes!

Note: A few hours after posting this, I received an email from Lucrecia Dalt's mailing list, advertising her upcoming new album. It's title? "A Danger To Ourselves"...!