i wrote extensively about david sylvian in my teens. now that i am 44 years of age, i wish i didn't burnt or lose them papers and poems. i discovered david sylvian music in the beginning of the 80's, like most of us that we follow his creations. the band was japan, but for me it was the lyrics and the arrangements of the songs that captivated me. above all, the rusky voice. nowadays david sylvian is not only a reputed singer but an artiste. his creations are 'experiences', not only songs or films or graphic design and documentaries, collaborations or solo, books and performances or instalations (like in naoshima). his body of work, as a solo artist, is colossal in quality and excellence and it is becoming the archive and inheritance of a true artist without boundaries and limitations.
graphic design by v23my favourite album is by david sylvian, of course. secrets of the behive from 1987 (after the two essential solo work albums, brillant trees and gone to earth.)
secrets of the behive was, for me, the beginning of the referred experience of/about/by david sylvian. the use of silence and extraordinary arrangements just not only enhanced the poems and the excelsis voice, but complemented and enriched the music and poetry, creating for me, for the first time, the unique iexperience that sylvian is until today.
the timbres and tones of the songs seem to be nostalgic and sad, but actually the album as a whole grows stronger and stronger with each listening. the structure of the songs do not follow the verse chorus verse chorus schemata of traditional pop music, because it is on this album that sylvian transcends the pop singer stigmata attached to him since he was considered the 'most beautiful man in pop'. choose any song from the album and you enter a different world of stories, moments in time captured by the eyes and pen of a true poet that happens to be a musician possessed with an extraordinary voice and talent. he surrounds his songs with prepared pianos with solo parts, flughelhorns, violins and strings, piano, accoustic guitars to produce an ensemble without frontiers and borders, being at the same time uniquely david sylvian. the organ in let the happiness in, together with the sombre and triste percussion, tells a wave of a working man by the port watching the waves coming to shore, just to let the happiness him.
i can't listen to the album without crying. it is much like lady in satin by billie holiday. it doesn't remind me of people but alas of a time that is not necessary the time when i discovered the album - but the immense time, still, frozen time that the sounds and words and voice transmit and suggest, a photograph of things i would like to feel and think. it is not often i can say and write and feel these, like you cannot say the same about many other things. because this feeling of timeless time is the stuff dreams are made of, as the bard well said. it is a treasure surrounded by orchards, the sound of the sea coming in echoing swirls bringing tears, yes, but peace and tenderness.
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