David Sylvian - Manafon

[sisterlondon]

Yay for the news!

[Halloway]

Hello all,

re: the DVD edition. Apart from the film, does anyone know if it will contain a higher-resolution and/or surround mix of the album?

[neonico]

Manafon will be available in two editions.
A regular CD/digipak edition and a twin volume deluxe edition with CD and DVD featuring the film 'Amplified Gesture'.
Details and new website to follow soon.

the film 'Amplified Gesture'
Are there any relations to this video? http://vimeo.com/2034152

when we have bad luck and knowing sylvian`s humour there could be a relation to this video perhaps this is the one he s releasing help......

[camphorvan]

That definitely sounds like our Dave laughing in the background...

[neonico]

funny enough mr sylvians friend mr charles lindsay is also here



http://vimeo.com/4619387


so that was it with the dvd

no recording session footage

[triskadekaphobia]

1. Small Metal Gods
2. The Rabbit Skinner
3. Random Acts Of Senseless Violence
4. The Greatest Living Englishman
5. 125 Spheres
6. Snow White In Appalachia
7. Emily Dickinson
8. The Department Of Dead Letters
9. Manafon

[banyan]

Hi

Thanks for the track listing info!

Some interesting titles.

If its the same one, Emily Dickinson was an american poet from the 1800's.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155



Richard

[Simonp]

I'm loving the song titles....

[baht habit]

1. Small Metal Gods
2. The Rabbit Skinner
3. Random Acts Of Senseless Violence
4. The Greatest Living Englishman
5. 125 Spheres
6. Snow White In Appalachia
7. Emily Dickinson
8. The Department Of Dead Letters
9. Manafon

Thanks so much for the info. The official press release:

David Sylvian is a man apart. In a thirty-year career that spans the New Romantic movement, ambient works and progressive rock, and mature and esoteric pop, Sylvian has tested popular styles and bent them to his own vision. But the ‘00s have seen a more extreme side of his work. While 2003’s 'Blemish' startled long-time fans with its emotional rigour, Sylvian has taken the next step with 'Manafon' (his first solo album in 6 years) – a work of nuance and stern musicality, that is also intriguing, suspenseful, and horribly beautiful.

On 'Manafon', Sylvian pursues "a completely modern kind of chamber music. Intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical". In sessions in London, Vienna, and Tokyo, Sylvian assembled the world’s leading improvisers and innovators, artists who explore free improvisation, space-specific performance, and live electronics. From Evan Parker and Keith Rowe, to Fennesz and members of Polwechsel, to Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide, the musicians provide both a backdrop and a counterweight to his own vocal performances – which, minus one instrumental, are nakedly the center of each piece.

Sylvian’s voice has never been so dominant or so striking, and his resonant tenor and deliberate vibrato captivate the listener from the start of 'Small Metal Gods'. "It’s like a one-man monologue in which every change of light and backdrop is crucial to the carrying of the central performance. It’s an ensemble work even though there is a central performance".

Intuition drew Sylvian to these pieces and these players, and the surprises they bring: a cello visiting like a warm hand on a forehead, the unpredictable use of unadulterated sine waves, the brassy path of Evan Parker’s soprano sax solo. 'Manafon' has a forbidding core, but aesthetically, each piece is an engrossing discovery.

Presented as ever in a beautiful digipak featuring exquisite artwork from Ruud Van Empel and designed by Chris Bigg.

[banyan]

First retail listing for Manafon

http://www.recordstore.co.uk/productdet ... 8eqN3IEb-1



Richard

[karnsculpture]

Full press release and musician credits;

David Sylvian releases new solo album Manafon - September 2009

David Sylvian is a man apart. In a thirty-year career that spans the
New Romantic movement, ambient works and progressive rock, and mature
and esoteric pop, Sylvian has tested popular styles and bent them to
his own vision. But the ‘00s have seen a more extreme side of his
work. While 2003’s Blemish startled long-time fans with its emotional
rigour, Sylvian has taken the next step with Manafon – a work of
nuance and stern musicality, that is also intriguing, suspenseful, and
horribly beautiful.

On Manafon, Sylvian pursues “a completely modern kind of chamber
music. Intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical.” In
sessions in London, Vienna, and Tokyo, Sylvian assembled the world’s
leading improvisers and innovators, artists who explore free
improvisation, space-specific performance, and live electronics. From
Evan Parker and Keith Rowe, to Fennesz and members of Polwechsel, to
Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide, the musicians provide both a backdrop
and a counterweight to his own vocal performances – which, minus one
instrumental, are nakedly the center of each piece.

Sylvian’s voice has never been so dominant or so striking, and his
resonant tenor and deliberate vibrato captivate the listener from the
start of “Small Metal Gods.” Its prominence would come off as
egotistical – except that each performance is an exercise in self-
exposure, and each character study is written in the third-person, to
allow the maximum detachment.

“It’s like a one-man monologue in which every change of light and
backdrop is crucial to the carrying of the central performance. It’s
an ensemble work even though there is a central performance.” Though
the setlist is all ballads, romanticism is out, and no percussion
provides a pulse. All the melody and rhythm rest in the voice. Aside
from overdubs of acoustic guitar or John Tilbury’s somber, Feldman-
esque phrases on piano, Sylvian enhanced but did not reconfigure the
improvisations, giving himself just the skeletons of songs to guide him.

When an instrument locks with the lyrics – as when Fennesz introduces
a texture that clinches the disaster of “Snow White in Appalachia” –
the moment is indescribable; when it dissolves, Sylvian doesn’t
pause. Neither a complement nor a Greek chorus, the instrumentalists
maintain an ambiguous attitude to the singer, and what he’s saying.
When Sylvian’s delivery implies sympathy or mockery on “The Greatest
Living Englishman,” the music is cantankerous but dry, and Otomo
Yoshihide’s abrupt snippets of classical vinyl may or may not share
the joke.

The closing track, “Manafon,” depicts the British poet R. S. Thomas.
Sylvian explains that it is “a description of a man of faith, who
struggles with that faith, who imposes an order on the external world
in the hope of finding it internally. A man who embraces the morals
and values of his faith and lives by them but who also struggles with
the silence that burns inside his own heart and mind. God’s silence.
He’s a man out of time who begins to look, on the surface, more like
some tragicomic figure as time passes. While he seems to be an
insufferable individual in many ways there’s a quixotic element in his
quest for knowledge, for upholding morals and values that even he
struggles with when it comes to believing in their efficacy.”

Manafon’s contradictions lay at the heart of its excellence. It’s
driven not just by the tension between improvisation and composition,
frontman and ensemble, or in Sylvian’s words, “intimacy and solitude.”
Manafon captures the dilemma of a man who studies himself clincically,
but cannot truly understand himself; who’s disillusioned, but maybe
laughably so. The most common sensation, which hangs in almost every
note, is a feeling of suspense. The sole instrumental – to which
Sylvian also contributes – sounds less like a performance, and more
like a wellspring of possibilities.

The album ends simply on a phrase and a breath. But there’s a happier
ending in its other theme: Manafon also explores the creative
process. Intuition drew Sylvian to these pieces and these players,
and the surprises they bring: a cello visiting like a warm hand on a
forehead, the unpredictable use of unadulterated sine waves, the
brassy path of Evan Parker’s soprano sax solo. Manafon has a
forbidding core, but aesthetically, each piece is an engrossing
discovery.

“Maybe I’m attracted to the stories of individuals who search for
meaning on their own terms,” says Sylvian. “But what I’m fascinated
by is the devotion to a creative discipline. The meaning with which
the work imbues the life regardless of its reception and, to a certain
extent, its importance.” Sylvian’s search is endless, and maybe
quixotic. The fruits of the journey are unknowably rich.

www.davidsylvian.com

www.samadhisound.com

Musician Credits for Manafon

small metal gods (5:49)
music: dafeldecker/fennesz/moser/stangl/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
guitar: burkard stangl
acoustic bass: werner dafeldecker
cello: michael moser
laptop, guitar: christian fennesz
no-input mixer: toshimaru nakamura
turntables: otomo yoshihide
vocals: david sylvian

the rabbit skinner (4:42)
music: fennesz/mattos/parker/ryan/sylvian/tilbury
lyrics: sylvian
piano: john tilbury
saxophone: evan parker
cello: marcio mattos
laptop guitar: christian fennesz
live signal processing: joel ryan
vocals, acoustic guitar: david sylvian

random acts of senseless violence * (7:06)
music: dafeldecker/fennesz/moser/rowe/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
guitar: keith rowe
piano: john tilbury
acoustic bass: werner dafeldecker
cello: michael moser
laptop, guitar: christian fennesz
turntables: otomo yoshihide
trumpet: franz hautzinger
vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar: david sylvian

the greatest living englishman (10:55)
music: akiyama/sachiko m/nakamura/yoshihide/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
electric and acoustic guitar (left channel): tetuzi akiyama
no-input mixer: toshimaru nakamura
sine wave sampler: sachiko m.
turntables, acoustic guitar (right channel): otomo yoshihide
piano: john tilbury
vocals: david sylvian

125 spheres (0:29)
music: dafeldecker/fennesz/stangl/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
guitar: burkard stangl
acoustic bass: werner dafeldecker
laptop, guitar: christian fennesz
vocals, electronics: david sylvian

snow white in appalachia * (6:36)
music: dafeldecker/fennesz/moser/rowe/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
guitar: keith rowe
piano: john tilbury
acoustic bass: werner dafeldecker
cello: michael moser
laptop, guitar: christian fennesz
vocals, keyboards: david sylvian

emily dickinson (6:25)
music: fennesz/parker/sylvian/tilbury
lyrics: sylvian
piano: john tilbury
saxophone: evan parker
laptop guitar: christian fennesz
signal processing: joel ryan
vocals, electronics: david sylvian

the department of dead letters (2:26)
music: fennesz/mattos/parker/sylvian/tilbury
piano: john tilbury
saxophone: evan parker
cello: marcio mattos
laptop guitar: christian fennesz
live signal processing: joel ryan
electronics: david sylvian

manafon * (5:23)
music: dafeldecker/fennesz/moser/rowe/sylvian
lyrics: sylvian
guitar: keith rowe
acoustic bass: werner dafeldecker
cello: michael moser
laptop, guitar: christian fennesz
trumpet: franz hautzinger
vocals: david sylvian

[untitled]

Can't put in to words how excited I am by this info. Finally seeing how each of the artists come together......I'm sitting here with the biggest smile on my face Roll on September!

[neonico]

blah blah blah.....

[Adrian]

neonico - what's the problem with people being excited? So am I - hopefully pre-orders will be up soon...

[qdes]

I can't remember when I've read something as anxiously and excitingly as I have now. Bring it on, can't wait.