Instrumental Sylvian

[kitaj]

Words with the Shaman above all. (but really, for me, Pts 1 & 2 are really Pt 1, Pt 3 is Pt 2, and 'Preparations for a Journey' is Pt 3.) pure mystery - the whole piece sounds as if it's a long-lost ethnological recording somewhere in the Amazonian or some other forest, and the music is absolutely pictorial and everything. and the way the drums sound still totally baffles me. sadly, David chose to dodge my question as to the modus recordandi of this suite in a Q&A submitted by davidsylvian.it last year.

amongst the Gone to Earth instrumentals, I choose 'The Wooden Cross' - incredible chord sequences there, for example.
and what about those ambient guitar washes? seems to me no-one really picked up how good and imaginative our Dave is as a colourist on any given instrument. (I admit I don't care so much for his singing as most people do.)

[neonico]

my faviorit is TRAUMA

[Haldeman Gracie]

His instrumental work is easily as good as his songwriting. I rate Gone To Earth Disc 2 (or Sides 3 & 4 back in the day) as his single finest work.

It was a huge mark against him, however, that he botched two GTE tracks on Camphor. Given he spent 18 months on his compilation albums, I'm astounded that such a perfectionist didn't notice these tracks were playing at the wrong speed, especially given how blatant it was.

[Gabzi Nemo]

I'm only familiar with the GTE instrumentals from Sylvian. I can remember listening to them on repeat when I was doing some late night studying about a year ago. I love that fact that they are an interesting collection, yet the tracks do not dominate your attention.

I need to start branching out into more of Sylvian's discography. I'm only truly familiar with the last three Japan albums and first three Sylvian albums. That has to be fixed......eventually x)

[javier]

Such a difficult choice, as I consider a few of these releases at the same level.

Gone To Earth was my introduction to Sylvian and remains my overall favourite of all his work, a perfect double album. But the two albums with Holger Czukay also hold a special place for me. These three releases all feature those wonderful sparse, mysterious atmospherics and are still among my most-listened to "late night" albums over 30 years later.

For its sheer variety of gorgeous evocative senses of space, GTE disc 2. For the pure aching beauty of the atmosphere, it might have to be be P&P.