New Sylvian release this year

[Foales Arishes]

So its out tomorrow (Sat 10th)... I wonder if anyone will get it on the 10th, or whether they are only posted out after this date?

If anyone does get it please let us know your thoughts... it won't take long to listen too

Kinda sad to be so expectant over a fifteen minute improv style instrumental

[hitch]

i got email from mark: The release date is October 10th and copies will be dispatched in the early days of next week.

[Foales Arishes]

i got email from mark: The release date is October 10th and copies will be dispatched in the early days of next week.

Cheers for the info hitch.... sometime next week it is then

[svendutchmountains]

Just coming back to the 3" format... (which I thought had died years ago).

Lenka Lente have just released a book about Léon Léhautier accompanied by a CD containing the Nurse With Wound track Close To You. The book is rather a booklet... and the CD is actually a 3"! Guess the format is not dead, just underground!

The booklet is in French, and the NWW track is actually wonderful (but then most NWW stuff is!)

Greetings from the Dutch mountains
Sven

[hitch]

Cheers for the info hitch.... sometime next week it is then

still waiting...

[Foales Arishes]

Well its here!... First the package... I like the tin, though I would not want too many of them, but as a novelty its an interesting way to present a CD. Contained within is a postcard photo by David with the credit text on the reverse.

The CD itself is full sized and looks like a vinyl record, with a white centre and a black outer with fake tracks... even the playing surface is black, something I've not seen before.

As for the music... well it not music, its noises... bangs, bumps, scrapes, fumblings, ticks, tocks, birds, muffled voices, and the odd snippet of sampled [real] music... there's maybe the odd fart in there too, and David heating up his lunch in the microwave ... It sounds like someone messing around in their garage and comes across as very random. To me it has little beauty; its agitating and unsettling... its definitely closest in sound to Naoshima, with it's sudden bangs and noises, but that had more of the natural world, and sence of place, which made it work better for me.

Am I glad I own it?... Yes. Will I listen to it much?... No.

Images below... spoiler tags don't seem to work here, so warning SPOILERS below.

[hitch]

at least, it looks nice
thanks!

[Tin Bird]

Some initial quick thoughts...packaging looks pretty cool, but one wonders why the release is not credited to David Sylvian/Jan Bang as it looks like they both had a hand in it's creation...?

Based on the description of it's sound, it appears that it is a minimal, improv piece w truly "random objects" being used to make the sounds... along w a few low key samples. Music like this can be terrific when done well..without hearing it again mind you, works such as: bernhard gunter - un peu de neige salie, Thomas Koner - Permafrost, or Phil Durrant / Thomas Lehn / Radu Malfatti - dach spring to mind. Plight and Premonition is still a landmark recording in my humble opinion. I hope that the quiet rustlings on this new album are an introspective environment.

Looking forward to receiving my copy.

[Quiet Visitor]

The CD itself is full sized and looks like a vinyl record, with a white centre and a black outer with fake tracks... even the playing surface is black, something I've not seen before.

Thanks for the review.

I have a couple of those CD's with a black playing surface. The Comsat Angels' compilation box-set "It's History" is one of them.

[Foales Arishes]

I don't know whether this would be considered a good representation of the minimal improv art-form or not... I just know its not really for me. I simply like a little more structure to my music, even if it is experimental and improvised; this, for the most part, is just noises... I like a little more music in my music

It was probably not the point of the piece, but when you look at the location this was recorded - Ny-Hellesund - which is a small set of islands off the southern coast of Norway, it somehow feels like a missed opportunity. The place has such amazing visual beauty and interest that it seems a shame the piece to come out of it sounds like someone tidying their workshop, while failing to tune their radio. I'm sure there must have been a wealth of natural and man-made sounds, that could have made an interesting environmental piece, rather than knocking around in the schoolhouse there.

Mind you it could be worse, like the video on Confront's site showing someone using a blowtorch to bust a harps strings, one by one – with long periods of just sitting – and then re-stringing the thing... I'm sorry but that just made me laugh.

At the risk of sounding like Chad I think DS has more to offer than this... just my opinion of course.

Oh, and I've listened to it five times... so I'm giving it a fair chance

[Tin Bird]

Chad's name had already popped into my head when I read your description! Perhaps this release would have vindicated him...or not. I'm going to remain optimistic until I hear it.

[raindrop123]

I must admit I am with Foales on this one... Naoshima had a great sense of mood and place and seemed to be a deliberately composed soundscape. The Schoolhouse release sounds like a recorded spring-cleaning It seems there is more excitement to be had from the packaging than the content, which is a bit of a shame really. I'm happy that David is still searching and experimenting, however, in this instance I am questioning if this "material" was really worth putting out there...

[Tin Bird]

I'm hoping that mine has arrived when I get home from work...we'll see...

[Tin Bird]

Does it sound something like this: http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/014.html

If so, I might very well like it because I really love this album.

[ob8]

At the risk of sounding like Chad I think DS has more to offer than this... just my opinion of course.

i like it, the joke that is