Keigh

Sylvian has a whole other side to him that is primarily ambient, avante garde and instrumental. He's done a couple albums with Holger Czukay of Can and collaborated with former YMO member, Riuichi Sakamoto on many projects.

Approaching Silence , Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities and Flux and Mutability are good examples of this. Also Blemish which is very free form.

Bulldog

I had a look around for Alchemy a while back, but to no avail. I've heard a little of his work with Czukay and Sakamoto before, all of which is pretty impressive judging by what I've heard, but I'm yet to properly look for any of the album-length stuff. His new album's somewhere between the two - very sparse, jazzy and not really very melodic at all, but still with the vocals having a good share in it all. Definitely worth having if you can get hold of it.

Keigh

Amazon has Alchemy reasonably-priced. I've bought most of Sylvian's stuff from there.

Bulldog

Just a bump to say that...

a) I still haven't listened to Tin Drum just yet
b) I think that this man is still one of the most overlooked talents in British music regardless of that
c) I've since got hold of a whole bunch more of his albums
d) I've been listening to the said ambient side parts of his discography

And these two are the best I've heard;


^ Plight & Premonition with ex-Canman Holger Czukay and...


^ ...something he did all by himself, namely Approaching Silence.

Both of them are pretty immense to tell you the truth. Plight & Premonition there has a lot in common the minimalist, spacey atmospherics of Brain Eno's Ambient series, and probably not such a safe bet if you're not into that kinda thing. That's not to say that Approaching Silence is bubblegum pop by comparison, but the changing musical passages are lot more noticeable, and there's the odd spoken-word vocal from Sylvian in there too - a lot more proggy, certainly to these ears anyway.

I'll find an excuse to review one them someday, you can be sure of that

Keigh

Approaching Silence is my favorite Sylvian's ambient works.

grindy

I've listened to quite a lot of his music recently. While I do enjoy a lot of the music he is involved with, the experimental as well as the more melodic stuff, I do have difficulties with his singing. While he is a good singer and has a unique and pleasant voice, his singing is always the same. Same pitch, same articulation, same melodies. And during the course of a whole album this tends to get a little tiresome.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Goofle

Rain Tree Crow

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Chula Vista

This is essential IMO.

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on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

grindy

I prefer the live album, although both are great.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.