David Sylvian – Manafon

Regular readers of my blog over the last few years will know that I love the music of David Sylvian and have been a big fan since the early days of Japan back in the 70s. His solo career has been an eclectic and diverse mix of albums with a stunning array of musicians from jazz, avant garde and ambient.

His latest album was talked about on internet based mailing lists for the few weeks before release, and there were clips on his website to listen to. It was clearly not going to be an easy listen. Alongside Christian Fennesz who worked with Sylvian on his last solo album (the stunning track “Fire in the Forest” from ‘Blemish’) are a wide range of avant garde musicians including Evan Parker and John Tilbury.

It has taken me a couple of weeks to get to listen to this album properly. It is not the sort of album to put on in the background. Over the last few days I have listened to it on headphones. Sylvian’s voice is placed way up in the mix and the other instruments create a subtle soundtrack in the background. Most of this is missed unless you use headphones. It is a difficult listen, but one that is rewarded massively. The sounds are so stripped down that it takes a while to figure out what is going on. But there is structure here, and the lyrics and voice of Sylvian hold the whole thing together. Many critics, including Ian Penman writing in the latest issue of The Wire, say that they have lost it with Sylvian. They think that he has pushed his music into a cul-de-sac. I don’t agree. I think this album is a staggering achievement. To take the fractured, fragmented and skeletal sounds of the two groups which he worked with on this album and craft the resulting work, is remarkable.  I feel like I have really only scraped the surface of the nuances in this music. It is a work that truly repays the effort put in.