David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly electronic sound made them an important influence on the UK's early-1980s New Romantic scene. Following their breakup, Sylvian embarked on a solo career with his debut album Brilliant Trees (1984). His solo work has been described by AllMusic as "far-ranging and esoteric", and has included collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Fripp, Holger Czukay, Jon Hassell, Bill Nelson and Fennesz. While his recordings of the 1980s and 1990s were a mixture of pop, jazz fusion, and avant-garde experimentalism mixed with ambient, his more recent compositions have drawn increasingly on musical minimalism and free improvisation.
Holger Czukay was a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde", Czukay was also notable for having created early important examples of ambient music, for having explored "world music" well before the term was coined, and for having been a pioneer of sampling.
Gone to Earth is technically the third solo album by David Sylvian, released in September 1986. However, David Sylvian’s website davidsylvian.com states that Gone to Earth is "David Sylvian’s second solo album proper", and that the previous release Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities is an "intermediary album".
Ryoji Ikeda is a Japanese visual and sound artist who currently lives and works in Paris, France. Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing. The conclusion of his album +/- features just such a tone; of it, Ikeda says "a high frequency sound is used that the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance". Rhythmically, Ikeda's music is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine. His work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse.
Blemish is the sixth solo album by David Sylvian, released in 2003. Following Sylvian's acquittal from Virgin Records, he built a home studio, Samadhi Sound Studio, and recorded Blemish in early 2003. The album was inspired by, and documents, the disintegration of Sylvian's relationship with his wife, Ingrid Chavez, marking a turning point in Sylvian's lyrics as they became more personal and open and less oblique. Wanting to find a new musical vocabulary for himself, he recorded the album in a relatively quick, six-week duration, improvising the eight songs on the album as he went. It features guest appearances from free improvisation guitarist Derek Bailey, and electronic musician Fennesz.
Nine Horses is a musical collaboration between singer/instrumentalist David Sylvian, his brother and frequent collaborator drummer Steve Jansen, and electronic composer/remixer Burnt Friedman.
Snow Borne Sorrow is an album by Nine Horses, released in October 2005. Nine Horses is a collaboration between David Sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman. Other contributors include Norwegian trumpeter and Supersilent member Arve Henriksen, Swedish vocalist Stina Nordenstam, and Ryuichi Sakamoto on piano.
Damage is a live recording of a 1993 tour by David Sylvian and Robert Fripp. It is taken from the final show of the tour.
Camphor is a David Sylvian compilation album released in 2002 as a companion to Everything and Nothing. The focus is on his instrumental work. The album, nonetheless, has two previously unreleased tracks: "The Song Which Gives the Key to Perfection" and "Camphor".
Samadhi Sound is an independent record label founded by singer and musician David Sylvian after his departure from Virgin Records in the late nineties.
Theo Travis is a British saxophonist, flautist and composer. He is best known for being a member of Soft Machine which he joined in 2006 while the group was still using the "Legacy" suffix and for being a member of Gong from 1999 to 2010.
Money for All is a 2007 release by the band Nine Horses, featuring David Sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman. The album includes three new songs: "Money for All," "Get the Hell Out," and "Birds Sing for Their Lives." The others are remixes.
Assemblage is a compilation album by the British band Japan, released in 1981 by Hansa Records.
Hayden Chisholm is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist from New Zealand. He performs jazz, improvised music, and contemporary classical music.
"Nightporter" is a song by English new wave band Japan. The song originally featured on the band's fourth album Gentlemen Take Polaroids in 1980. However, it was then remixed by Steve Nye and released as a single in November 1982. The single peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.
Chasm is the 15th studio album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and was released in 2004. The album is experimental, pairing Sakamoto's piano work with ambient and glitch programming. Notably, Sakamoto's former bandmates from Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, contribute on several songs under their own production name, Sketch Show.
World Citizen is an EP by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian. It was originally released in 2003 in Japan, and was later released under UK label in 2004. The two editions have different track lists and different covers. The EP was created as part of a project called Chain Music instigated by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Jan Bang is a Norwegian musician and record producer who has worked with Morten Harket, Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Nils Petter Molvær, Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arve Henriksen, and Erik Honoré.
Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations is a remix album by English singer and musician David Sylvian, released in May 2011 by Sylvian's independent label Samadhi Sound. The album features six songs from Sylvian's 2009 album Manafon, which have been remixed by Dai Fujikura. The new songs are heavily influenced by Fujikura, who conducted, arranged and composed the prevalent strings sections. "I Should Not Dare" and "A Certain Slant of Light" are poems by Emily Dickinson, set to music and sung by Sylvian.
Sleepwalkers is a compilation album by David Sylvian, released September 2010 by Samadhi Sound.
