DAVID SYLVIAN - Sleepwalkers

This new release by David Sylvian gathers some of the collaborations with other musicians that he recorded over the past decade.

Compositions written for Nine Horses with Burnt Friedman and Steve Jansen, drummer and electronic experimenter – a longtime companion – or with old friend Ryuichi Sakamoto. Then more recent experiences such as those with Christian Fennesz, Jan Bang and Erik Honoré, or with the surreal trumpet of Arve Henriksen and contemporary composer Dai Fujikura, proving, if proof were ever needed, just how open David's mind is, and his unshakeable curiosity.

"World Citizen – I Won't Be Disappointed", written with Sakamoto, is a romantic and sensual track, released on an EP in Japan in 2003 and then the following year by Samadhisound; it celebrates a period of collaboration with the Japanese artist also documented by "No More Landmine", a mini-album (unfortunately not included in this collection) made by various musicians to raise public awareness about the atrocities caused by anti-personnel mines.

Of a different tone is "Pure Genius", written with Chris Vrenna (former member of Nine Inch Nails) aka Tweaker, an offbeat and dark track with intense, radical lyrics, and "Sugarfuel", with music written by Jean-Philippe Verdin, aka Readymade Fc.

Left out are two other sonic fruits with the two aforementioned musicians, namely the beautiful "Linoleum", included on Tweaker's first album "The Attraction To All Thing Uncertain", and the sharp, modern rewrite of "A Fire In The Forest" reworked by David Sylvian together with Readymade Fc for his album "Babilonia".

"Thermal" and "Angels", produced by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré, aka Punkt (with Arve Henriksen), find Sylvian reading poetry over soundscapes of intricate, nocturnal atmosphere. Masterpieces of timeless avant-garde, like the title track that opens the compilation, written with Martin Brandlmayr.

Besides "Sleepwalkers", two other gems have been recovered from David Sylvian's photographic tour book, namely "The World Is Everything", which gave the book-CD its title, and "Exir/Delete", a stimulating array of sounds born from the skill of director and musician Tagaci Masakatsu (also featured on the "Penguin Cafe Tribute"); worth mentioning too is "Trauma" (an outtake from "Blemish").

"Sleepwalkers" offers more than one reason to appreciate it, though it leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste for fans who would have preferred a more comprehensive extended version (as already happened with "Everything & Nothing" and "Camphor"); the remix versions with Nine Horses, the other missing tracks mentioned above, and some lesser-known collaborations (some traceable on the bogus compilation "Commissions") could have enriched what is already an excellent collection.

But aside from this minor flaw, "Sleepwalkers" stands out as an album that is necessarily heterogeneous yet intensely inspired. Pure genius…

contributions by Gianfranco Marmoro

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20/09/2010