Compile a compilation :)

[Simonp]

Just thinking, if Sylvian hadn't released Everything & Nothing and chose NOW to release a retrospective, what songs would appear on it. I'm thinking anything from Brilliant Trees up to Died In The Wool? Would it sound too disparate to or do you think you could choose the right songs to make it a cohesive sounding whole? Single or double release, it's your call. Lets see what you would put on it

[karnsculpture]

In retrospect we can now view "Everything & Nothing" as less of a compilation and more a career retrospective in the way "Sleepwalkers" is basically Volume 2. Anyway, I'd have a totally different take to Sylvian's to include:

In No Particular Order

Forbidden Colours - the original single version as it's never been on a DS CD or digital release
Red Guitar (single version)
Blue Of Noon
The Woman At The Well
Let The Happiness In (DJ edit version)
Taking The Veil Mendelsohn mix or the DJ edit as it has a better intro IMHO
I Have Waited For You
For The Love Of Life
Jaqueline
Darkest Dreaming - an instrumental version was played over the PA at the RFH after one of his 2001 gigs, stunnng.
Ingrid's Wheels (any live version would do as he hasn't recorded it in the studio allegedly)
and the various other live tracks we don't have studio versions of

[Simonp]

Could you compile something containing something from BOTH sleepwalkers and everything & nothing, Paul? Or do you just prefer everything pre-Blemish? Just curious. They're just distinct periods in his career aren't they? Samadhisound certainly marked a new beginning for him

[karnsculpture]

Yup, I do prefer more things he's done pre-Blemish, though "For The Love Of Life" is in my all-time top 3 and that's post-Blemish. I've also chosen songs that are not on either of the previous collections, and with the post-Blemish songs that limits you to live tracks and the occasional oddity like Before & Afterlife.

[Stephenf]

I think in saying that the sound would be too disparate would be an understatement to say the least. The conflicting, dissimilar and polar opposites of composition that D Sylvian has created in the four decades of being a solo performer has taken us through some harsh landscapes especially since 'Blemish' was released in 2003.
But then again the b-side of 'Brilliant Trees' was something of a starting point for the majority of us.
The work with Holger Czukay, Robert Fripp, Rain Tree Crow educated and intrigued and it is that captivation that still has us hanging around today.
From pop music to free improvisation with a fair bit of funk, jazz, rock, folk, ambient and electronica thrown in for good measure.
So to try and work out a compilation is going to be extremely subjective for us all and i doubt if any of us will agree to the selections posted.
These are my picks and in no chronological order.

Fire in the forest
Backwaters
Snow white in appalachia
Incantation
Darkest dreaming
Darshan
Laughter and forgetting
A Bird of prey vanishes into a bright blue cloudless sky
Orpheus
Blemish
Gone to Earth
Praise
Atom and cell
Brilliant trees
September
Emily dickinson
Nostalgia
The last days of december
Thermal

Mood is everything and the list can change given the day, week, year etc

[Sweetie]

Well, as I’m what some of you on here would class as a casual fan, my compilation will probably be considered ‘safe’. But here goes.

In no particular order

For The Love of Life
Victim of Stars
World Citizen
Damage
Nostalgia
The Shining of Things
Taking The Veil
Silver Moon
Waterfront
The First Day
I Have Waited For You
Endgame
Playground Martyrs
Money For All
Exit/Delete
I Should Not Dare
A Certain Slant of Light
The Librarian
A History of Holes
The Banality of Evil

Oh, someone stop me

[humanracer]

1.Red Guitar
2.Forbidden Colours (1984 version)
3.Ink In The Well
4.Nostalgia
5.Taking The Veil
6.Upon This Earth
7.Silver Moon
8.Words With The Shaman Part 3
9.When Love Walks In
10.Boy With The Gun
11.Let The Happiness In
12.Pop Song
13.Jean The Birdman
14.Heartbeat
15.I Surrender
16.Wonderful World
17.Bamboo Houses
18.The Other Side Of Life

[Chet]

Steel Cathedrals
Weathered Wall
Red Guitar
Forbidden Colours (1984)
The Ink in the Well
Brilliant Trees
Laughter & Forgetting
Let the Happiness In
September
Orpheus
The Boy With the Gun
Blackwater
A Fire in the Forest
Jacqueline

[javier]

It has to be a journey, not just a great collection of tracks.

01 The First Day
02 Earthbound (faded at 4:30 to cut the Frippertronics)
03 God's Monkey
04 September
05 Orpheus
06 Wonderful World
07 The Banality Of Evil
08 Firepower
09 Brightness Falls
10 Every Colour You Are
11 Silver Moon
12 Wave (Damage version)
13 Riverman (Damage version)
14 The Golden Way (Everything and Nothing version)
15 Damage
16 Blackwater
17 Darshan (The Road To Graceland)
18 Ride
19 Taking The Veil
20 Laughter And Forgetting
21 Before The Bullfight
22 I Surrender
23 Praise (Endlessness 2009 remix)
24 For The Love Of Life
25 Wave (Camphor version)
26 Answered Prayers

Sorely tempted to include a live 2007 World Citizen but nothing of sufficient sound quality seems to exist...

[Blemished]

Great thread - I thought E&N was more of an odds'n'sods album rather than an attempt at a 'best of' and I really think that - somewhere on the line - it might be worth a shot for David to bring together a collection of songs with the widest appeal in an attempt to get some serious sales...what 'widest appeal' is though is less certain....this is my take:

Nostalgia
For the love of life
Damage
Transit
Linoleum
Forbidden colours
A fire in the forest
Let the happiness in
September
Red Guitar
Wonderful world
Late night shopping
Small metal gods
Weathered wall
Darkest dreaming
Emily Dickinson
Silver moon
Every colour you are
When poets dreamed of angels
A certain slant of light (acoustic)
Waterfront

[shesgotmedals]

In order of favourability.( is that a word )...

Silver Moon
Cover me with Flowers
The boy with the gun
Playground Martyrs
Forbidden colours
The banality of evil
Some kind of fool
Wanderlust
Brillian trees
Orpheus
The world is everything
The shining of things
The ink in the well
Nightporter

[Burnsjed]

I have chosen 1 to 3 songs (depending on albums length) with no. 1 being the first choice of that album etc.
There has been no though put in to whether the album would 'flow' together etc, but purely based on preference.
I have also not included any of the collaborations with Sakamoto, Steve or Mick etc.

Brilliant Trees
1) Nostalgia
2) Brilliant Trees
3) Weathered Wall
Gone To Earth
1) Before The Bullfight
2) Wave
3) River Man
Secrets of the Beehive
1) Orpheus
2) When Poets Dreamed Of Angels
3) Let The Happiness In
Rain Tree Crow
1) Every Colour You Are
2) Blackwater
3) Big Wheels in Shanty Town
The First Day/Damage
1) Damage
2) The First Day
3) Jean The Birdman
Dead Bees on a Cake
1) Darkest Dreaming
2) Wanderlust
3) Thalheim
Blemish
1) The Heart Knows Better
2) Blemish
3) A Fire In The Forest
Nine Horses
1) The Banality
2) The Librarian
3) Atom and Cell
Manafon
1) Small Metal Gods
2) Snow White In Appalachia
3) Emily Dickinson

[afternoonfix]

Darkest Dreaming
Forest Fire
Small Metal Gods
The First Day
Cries & Whispers
Maria
Gone to Earth
Waterfront
Silver Moon
I surrender
Promise (The Cult Of Eurydice)
Damage
History of Holes
Ride
Blackwater