Uncommon Credits

Talk about anything David Sylvian related.

Uncommon Credits

Postby Simonp on Wed Nov 07, 2012 4:25 am

It's interesting to note from the Uncommon Deities release that the writers, Paul-Helge Haugen and Nils Christian Moe-Repstad whose poetry obviously is a very important part of the project, are relegated to the back cover of the CD. I'm just curious as to how the whole thing works. This is supposedly marketed as a Jan Bang/Honore release and yet I get the feeling that Sylvian would have us believe that his input is greater than it actually is. His ONLY contribution is the reading of the texts, all music and production is by other artists. I'm not being particularly eloquent about this and I know what I'm trying to say but surely Sylvian is no more a contributer to Uncommon Deities as is Eivind Aarset who wrote some of the music and yet whose name does not appear on the cover? How and who decides on this?
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Re: Uncommon Credits

Postby Simonp on Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:43 am

well I thought it was an interesting topic :roll:
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Re: Uncommon Credits

Postby kitaj on Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:47 am

I still haven't received my copy, so I can't comment on this. having seen only the CD front and back jacket, and given that this, the end result product, is primarily an audio work, I think the credits are fine. I don't find the poets' name to be 'relegated' to the back cover, to me the design gives a hint their names are equally important as those on the front cover but occupy a different sphere of action/craft. I sure hope there's the English translator's name there somewhere in the credits, though.

as to the extent of Sylvian's involvement, besides supplying the primary inspiration with his original installation (thus creating the very raison d'etre for this work), I think he also does some sound design on one or two of the pieces. so, again, the credits are fine by me. given what I've read on this release on the web so far, I would say his contribution gets magnified more by journalists/reviewers than anybody else, as he's probably the easiest entry point for the general public concerning this release.
Last edited by kitaj on Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Uncommon Credits

Postby Simonp on Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:33 pm

Well if its the case that Sylvian has had some input in terms of "sound design" I'm surprised he's not pushed for a credit on the individual tracks he's contributed to. yes I would agree with you that Sylvian is probably more marketable than some of the other musicians on the release but it still doesn't answer my question as to why some musicians names make the cover while others dont
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Re: Uncommon Credits

Postby inkinthewell on Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:16 pm

Maybe this text, from the Uncommon Deities site, answers your question:

"At last fall’s Punkt Festival—one of the world’s premiere get-togethers of improvising and adventurous musicians—the Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in Kristiansand, Norway played host to Uncommon Deities, an unusual confluence of talents and media. Walking into the gallery’s large space, visitors were greeted by a series of paintings by Atsushi Fukui that culminated in the striking, hermaphroditic figure in “The Botanist.” An audio installation by David Sylvian filled the space, and the opening night celebration brought poets and musicians into the mix: the acclaimed Norwegian poets Paal-Helge Haugen and Nils Christian Moe Repstad read alongside Evan Parker and Arve Henriksen, and their works were read in English by Sylvian, whose recorded voice was accompanied by John Tilbury, Philip Jeck, and Sidsel Endresen.

The CD release of Uncommon Deities isn’t a document of the installation, but a reinvention: the poems and Sylvian’s readings are placed in new settings by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré. The cofounders of the Punkt festival and close collaborators on the original installation, Bang and Honoré draw on new performances by the deeply sympathetic trumpeter Arve Henriksen and the startling, elemental singer Sidsel Endresen. These improvisations join live material captured at last year’s Punkt events, in a production that’s spacious and atmospheric, somber and escapist, light-hearted and steeped in history—a recording as rich as the ancestry of the work that inspired it."
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