13.12.18: Permalink » Announcing 2019’s David Sylvian Vinyl Reissues
February 2019 sees the deluxe vinyl release of four David Sylvian albums spanning the period 1984 to 1987. Pre-order your copies here: davidsylvian.lnk.to/reissues
Brilliant Trees (1LP Deluxe)
David Sylvian’s debut solo album from 1984 is to be released for the first time on 180gram vinyl. Featuring the singles “Red Guitar”, “The Ink in The Well” and “Pulling Punches”, the album is now housed in a gatefold sleeve with a printed inner bag and comes with a download card. David is joined on his debut album by a stellar cast including Holger Czukay, Jon Hassell, Kenny Wheeler, Mark Isham, Phil Palmer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Danny Thompson.
Alchemy – An Index of Possibilities (1LP Deluxe)
David Sylvian’s intermediary album, made up of two entirely separate projects from 1985, is to be released for the first time on 180gram vinyl. Featuring brand new artwork, the album includes rare photographs by Yuka Fujii, design by Chris Bigg, and a download card. David is joined on ‘Alchemy’ by Holger Czukay, Robert Fripp, Jon Hassell, Steve Jansen, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Kenny Wheeler.
Gone To Earth (2LP Deluxe)
David Sylvian’s second solo album proper, a 2LP set from 1986, is to be released for the first time on 180gram vinyl. Featuring the singles “Silver Moon” and “Taking The Veil”, the 2LP set is housed in a gatefold sleeve with brand new artwork, including rare photographs by Yuka Fujii, design by Chris Bigg, and printed inner bags plus a download card. David is joined on his second solo album by Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Phil Palmer, B.J. Cole, Mel Collins, Steve Jansen, and Steve Nye.
Secrets of The Beehive (1LP Deluxe)
David Sylvian’s third solo album from 1987 is to be released for the first time on 180gram vinyl. Including the singles “Orpheus” and “Let The Happiness In”, the album features new artwork based on Nigel Grierson’s original photographs, redesigned by Chris Bigg, housed in a gatefold sleeve with a printed inner bag and download card. David is joined on his 3rd solo album by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Isham, Steve Jansen, Danny Thompson, and David Torn.
25.09.18: Permalink » Yuka Fujii “Like Planets” now available to preorder
Osmosis UK and Opium Arts in cooperation with Eyesencia present Like Planets, a photographic essay by Yuka Fujii. Hard cover, 260mm x 220mm Landscape. 170 pages. Designed by Chris Bigg in a limited edition of 1,500. The first 500 copies are signed and numbered by Yuka Fujii and David Sylvian. Randomly included in the remaining 1,000 copies are 15 signed unnumbered copies. Regular edition: £50, signed edition: £65. Available from 2nd November 2018.
Like Planets consists of 5 chapters. The book documents a seemingly quiet, intimate, existence in the company of her then partner, the artist, David Sylvian. Far from the world of popular music, the book reads like a visual poem of the time shared together. Sylvian is depicted in hotel rooms, small villages, graveyards, landscapes rural, exotic, and forbidding, before finally reaching a point of change, of grace, in the darkened rooms of Konya and Istanbul. Interspersed with poems and quotations, this is a tantalising and evocative glimpse of an intensely private life at a pivotal point in its evolution.
‘David and I were frequently like planets revolving around one another and, in some sense, this gravitational pull continues to this day.’ – YUKA FUJII
‘It’s hard to match the beauty of David Sylvian’s songs and sound in a visual context … but, judging by this beautifully shot and presented book … Yuka Fujii’s images come very close.’ – ANTON CORBIJN
Preorder the regular edition
Preorder the signed edition
Visit the Like Planets microsite: davidsylvian.com/likeplanets
08.08.18: Permalink » David Sylvian “Dead Bees On A Cake” (2018 Standard Edition)
Following on from the success of the RSD 2018 white vinyl edition of David Sylvian's 1999 album Dead Bees on a Cake, Universal now present the album on 180gram black vinyl, expanded with the additional four tracks that Sylvian intended for the original release, ‘The Scent of Magnolia’, ‘Albuquerque (Dobro #6)’, ‘Cover Me With Flowers’ and ‘Aparna and Nimisha ( Dobro #5)’.
The artwork, designed by Chris Bigg, differs from the RSD edition featuring a cover portrait by David's ex-wife, Ingrid Chavez, with additional rare photographs by Anton Corbijn.
Pre-order “Dead Bees On A Cake” (2018 Standard Edition) here
11.06.18: Permalink » Preorder the Sylvian/Czukay reissue
Grönland Records’ 2018 2LP/2CD edition of Plight & Premonition / Flux & Mutability is now available for preorder.
Preorder the 2LP edition
Preorder the 2CD edition
The version of Plight & Premonition included here is a remix by Sylvian from 2002. All the recordings have been fully remastered. The packaging has been redesigned by Chris Bigg with art direction by Sylvian with new, previously unseen, photographs by Yuka Fujii, accompanied by an extensive essay by David Toop.
26.04.18: Permalink » David Sylvian & Holger Czukay
Grönland Records announce the reissue of seminal ambient records Plight & Premonition (1988) and Flux & Mutability (1989), by David Sylvian & Holger Czukay. Release date: 22nd June 2018.
Grönland Records are proud to announce the reissue of one of ambient music's hidden gems, by two unique musicians whose paths originally crossed in the early-eighties while working on Sylvian’s debut solo album, Brilliant Trees. In 1986, David Sylvian - of British Art-Pop band Japan - and Holger Czukay - founding member and bassist in legendary German Kosmiche band Can - were ostensibly reconvening for Sylvian to record a vocal for Czukay's forthcoming album Rome Remains Rome. But on arriving at Czukay's studio - a former cinema in Köln - Sylvian began playing freeform, improvising on readily available instruments located in the studio itself. No sooner had Sylvian, on whatever instrument he’d been applying himself, start to structurally define/refine the performance than Czukay would stop the recording he’d surreptitiously been making. Czukay had attempted to capture the process of creation without a musician's inclination for refinement. This process, drawn out over two nights, gave birth to the duos first, full-fledged, collaboration, Plight and Premonition.
Having been out of print for some time, the parallels between the original release 30 years ago and now are quite stark; at the time of recording the Cold War was lifting - but still very real - after a bitter winter. The names Plight & Premonition and Flux & Mutability themselves hint at an instability. In Sylvian's words, the sessions seemed to touch on something: “A form of music that seemed to have been created while we were absent by instruments abandoned to the earth and the woods, sounded by the coarse winter elements.”
The version of Plight & Premonition included here is a remix by Sylvian from 2002. All the recordings have been fully remastered. The packaging has been redesigned by Chris Bigg with art direction by Sylvian with new, previously unseen, photographs by Yuka Fujii, accompanied by an extensive essay by David Toop.
Originally released separately, they are now packaged in a 2CD / 2LP set.
07.03.18: Permalink » Dead Bees on a Cake – limited white vinyl edition for Record Store Day
For the first time on vinyl, and in a limited edition on white vinyl for 2018’s Record Store Day (April 21st), Universal are releasing David Sylvian’s 1999 solo album Dead Bees on a Cake. Expanded into the double album Sylvian had originally intended it to be and adorned with photographs by Anton Corbijn and redesigned by Chris Bigg, it now includes four additional tracks; ‘The Scent of Magnolia’, ‘Albuquerque’, ‘Cover me with Flowers’, and ‘Aparna and Nimisha’.
07.12.17: Permalink » Coming soon: Like Planets by Yuka Fujii
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