History Music / DavidSylvian

His solo works represent an artistic evolution, as Sylvian proceeded to dispose of the flamboyancy, get a hair cut, and adopt more [[BaroqueMusic Baroque]], Chamber and {{Jazz}} influences that slowly began to resemble the latter-day, sophisticated Art Pop works of artists like Music/PeterGabriel or Music/TalkTalk (with a little bit of ''Music/{{Avalon}}''-era Music/RoxyMusic thrown in for good measure.) Sylvian made his new style known with his solo debut, 1984's ''Brilliant Trees'', before revealing an interest in {{ambient}} music on the follow-up mini-album ''Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities''. Sylvian's second official solo album, 1986's ''Gone to Earth'', doubled down on both approaches by splitting itself between a vocal art pop half and an instrumental ambient half. In 1987, Sylvian took an even more stripped-down approach with ''Secrets of the Beehive'', which extracted the electronics from prior albums and replaced them with lush string, violin and piano arrangements. After some experimental collaborations with Holger Czukay & Music/RobertFripp and a twelve year (!) wait, he made a solo comeback in 1999 in the form of ''Dead Bees on a Cake'', which took the style of his first two albums and refitted them around an RAndB core with occasional dives into FolkRock and AlternativeRock. His sound palette would mutate again with 2003's ''Blemish'', which removed everything but his harmonized voice, avant-garde guitar playing and glitching electronic drones; this new style would be mined and expanded on Sylvian's subsequent albums.

* AllStarCast: All of his mainline studio releases (excluding ''Blemish'') include a wide array of contributors:
** ''Brilliant Trees'' includes fellow ex Music/{{Japan}} members Steve Jansen on drums throughout the whole album and Richard Barbieri contributing synthesiser on "Pulling Punches" and "Weathered Wall", Holger Czukay from Music/{{Can}} on guitar and french horn, Jon Hassell on the trumpet on "Weathered Wall" and "Brilliant Trees", and Music/RyuichiSakamoto on "Red Guitar" and "Weathered Wall".
** ''Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities'' includes Jansen, Czukay, and Hassell on the "Words with the Shaman" trilogy, and Jansen, Czukay, Sakamoto, and Music/RobertFripp on "Steel Cathedrals".
** ''Gone to Earth'' continues to have Jansen, Barbieri, and Fripp contribute to certain tracks, with [[Music/KingCrimson Mel Collins]] and [[Music/BeBopDeluxe Bill Nelson]] on saxophone and guitar, respectively.
** ''Secrets of the Beehive'' has Sakamoto have a hand in every track, on the piano, organ, and synthesiser. Even tracks without his playing still have orchestral arrangements by him. David Torn is also on guitar for a couple of tracks.
** ''Dead Bees on a Cake'' has Jansen return, and Sakamoto contributes electric piano, orchestral arrangements, and "insect noises". New to Sylvian on this album are guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Bill Frisell [[note]]Although he only plays acoustic and Dobro guitar on the album[[/note]], drummer Ged Lynch (of Black Grape), and vocalist Shree Maa on "Praise". Sylvian's then-wife Ingrid Chavez also contributes spoken word vocals on a few tracks.
** Despite ''Blemish'' only featuring Sylvian for most of it, there are still collaborators, namely experimental guitarist Derek Bailey on "The Good Son", "She Is Not", and "How Little We Need to Be Happy", and ambient/glitch musician Christian Fennesz on "A Fire in the Forest". The remix album features Ryoji Ikeda, Burnt Friedman, and future samadhisound musicians Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Akira Rabelais, Jan Bang, and Erik Honoré.
** Nine Horses' album ''Snow Borne Sorrow'' features bandmembers Jansen and Friedman, Sakamoto, saxophonist [[Music/{{Gong}} Theo Travis]], singer Stina Nordenstam, and Supersilent trumpeter Arve Henriksen.
** The lineup for ''Manafon'' is essentially a who's-who of the EAI scene, with AMM's pianist John Tilbury and prepared guitarist Keith Rowe, the aformentioned Fennesz, guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, turntablist and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, no-input mixing board player Toshimaru Nakamura, sine wave musician Sachiko M, and Polwechsel members Werner Dafeldecker, Michael Moser, and Burkhard Stangl. The remix album also includes performances from Eddie Prévost, Jansen, Günter Müller, Henriksen, Bang and Honoré.

** 2023's ''samadhisound 2003–2014'' is a ten-CD set focusing on the material that Sylvian put out after his departure from Creator/VirginRecords in the early 2000s. The collection includes all four studio albums Sylvian put out under his vanity imprint Samadhisound, the {{Remix Album}}s for ''Blemish'' and ''Manafon'', the sole studio album by his JazzFusion project Nine Horses, the collaborative album ''Uncommon Deities'', and ''Do You Know Me Now?'', an expanded version of the Nine Horses EP ''Money for All'' that includes various rarities as bonus tracks.

* BoxedSet: ''Weatherbox'', a CD set containing ''Brilliant Trees'', a slightly expanded version of ''Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities'', ''Gone to Earth'', and ''Secrets of the Beehive'' (without the re-recorded "Forbidden Colours"). The set marked the first time that the unabridged version of ''Gone to Earth'' was available on CD outside of Japan, with previous western CD releases removing four tracks to fit the album on one disc.

** The 2000 compilation ''Everything and Nothing'' includes a new version of Music/{{Japan}}'s "Ghosts" that sees Sylvian performing a new vocal part atop the original instrumental. This remix is also included on ''A Victim of Stars 1982-2012''.

David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} English]] musician who may be best known for appearing in the NewRomantic / GlamRock band Music/{{Japan}} in the late '70s to the early '80s. After inner tensions between band members led to a falling out, Sylvian pursued a solo career, crafting music that was more mature and artsier than his previous work. He has since gained a respectable cult following. Sylvian has also dabbled in poetry, visual art and photography. He has been photographed by Creator/AntonCorbijn (who also produced some of his music videos), and has collaborated with Music/RyuichiSakamoto (more closely in his solo material) and with Music/KingCrimson guitarist Music/RobertFripp (their efforts combined produced two albums in the early to mid '90s). Sylvian was married to Music/{{Prince}} protégé Music/IngridChavez from 1992 until 2003. Throughout his career, both in Japan and solo, he has relied on his brother Steve Jansen (né Stephen Batt) as a percussionist.

His solo works represent an artistic evolution, as Sylvian proceeded to dispose of the flamboyancy, get a hair cut, and adopt more [[BaroqueMusic Baroque]], Chamber and {{Jazz}} influences that slowly began to resemble the latter-day, sophisticated Art Pop works of artists like Music/PeterGabriel or Music/TalkTalk (with a little bit of ''Music/{{Avalon}}''-era Music/RoxyMusic thrown in for good measure.) This is particularly present in 1984's ''Brilliant Trees''; but he took an even more stripped-down approach in 1987's ''Secrets of the Beehive'', which extracted the electronics from that album and the soundscapey ''Alchemy'' and ''Gone to Earth'' and replaced them with lush string, violin and piano arrangements. After some experimental collaborations and a twelve year (!) wait, he made a solo comeback in 1999 in the form of ''Dead Bees on a Cake,'' which took a slightly darker, more {{Ambient}} and adult contemporary approach to his classic pop leanings. His sound palette would mutate again with 2003's ''Blemish'', which removed everything but his harmonized voice, avant garde guitar playing and glitching electronic drones; this new style would be mined and expanded on Sylvian's subsequent albums.

* BreakUpSong: ''Blemish'' is a break-up album, with Sylvian meditating on his feelings over his divorce from Ingrid Chavez. "The only daughter" is probably the most break-upy song on the album, with a chorus of "This, your one and only warning / Please be gone by morning"

* ChangedForTheVideo: The music video for "Silver Moon" uses a truncated edit of the song that cuts the six-minute piece down to just under five, which is made more prominent by the fact that the single release uses the full-length version.

* ''The First Day'' (with [[Music/KingCrimson Robert Fripp]], 1993)

* SpecialGuest: Music/KingCrimson guitarist/bandleader Robert Fripp appears as a session guitarist throughout ''Gone to Earth''; Sylvian would return the favor via the collaborative album ''The First Day''.

David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} English]] musician who may be best known for appearing in the NewRomantic / GlamRock band Music/{{Japan}} in the late '70s to the early '80s. After inner tensions between band members led to a falling out, Sylvian pursued a solo career, crafting music that was more mature and artsier than his previous work. He has since gained a respectable cult following. Sylvian has also dabbled in poetry, visual art and photography. He has been photographed by Creator/AntonCorbijn (who also produced some of his music videos), and has collaborated with Music/RyuichiSakamoto (more closely in his solo material) and with Music/KingCrimson guitarist Robert Fripp (their efforts combined produced two albums in the early to mid '90s). Sylvian was married to Music/{{Prince}} protégé Music/IngridChavez from 1992 until 2003. Throughout his career, both in Japan and solo, he has relied on his brother Steve Jansen (né Stephen Batt) as a percussionist.

*** ''Secrets of the Beehive'' swaps out "Forbidden Colours (Version" for "Promise (The Cult of Eurydice)".

* AlternateAlbumCover: Because the original master artwork for the albums was lost, the 2018 reissues of ''Brilliant Trees'', ''Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities'', and ''Gone to Earth'' feature new covers made from various photoshoots done at the time. In particular, the ''Brilliant Trees'' cover now uses the full, uncropped version of the original photo, which was bordered by a yellow marble texture on the original release.