David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan.
During his time with Japan, Sylvian was known for his baritone voice, idiosyncratic approach to songwriting, and his distinctive androgynous appearance. The band's androgynous look and increasingly electronic sound made them an important influence on the UK's early-1980s new wave scene.
Following Japan's break-up, Sylvian embarked on a solo career with his debut album Brilliant Trees (1984). His solo work has been described by AllMusic as "far-ranging and esoteric", and has included collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Fripp, Holger Czukay, Jon Hassell, Bill Nelson and Fennesz.
While Sylvian's recordings of the 1980s and 1990s were a mixture of art rock, pop, jazz fusion, and avant-garde experimentalism mixed with ambient, his more recent compositions have drawn increasingly on musical minimalism and free improvisation.
Biography Early years David Sylvian was born David Alan Batt in Beckenham, Kent, England. He grew up in nearby Lewisham, South London, in a working-class home. His father Bernard was a plasterer by trade, his mother Sheila a housewife. He had an older sister and a younger brother, Steve. Sylvian later said he never enjoyed his childhood, mainly because of the environment of mid-1960s Lewisham. As an escape and emotional release from his discomfort he found an interest in music via his sister, who brought Motown and soul records to the home. He attended Catford Boys School where he became a friend of Anthony Michaelides, later known as Mick Karn. When David received an acoustic guitar and his brother a drum kit as Christmas presents from their father, the three boys began to play music together.Power, Martin, David Sylvian: The Last Romantic. Omnibus Press, 2012, chapter 1
1970s–early 1980s: Japan
The band Japan, whose other members included Mick Karn on bass, guitarist Rob Dean, keyboardist Richard Barbieri and Sylvian's brother Steve as drummer (under the name Steve Jansen), began as a group of friends. As youngsters they played music as a means of escape, playing Sylvian's two-chord numbers – sometimes with Karn as the frontman, sometimes with Sylvian at the fore.
They christened themselves Japan in 1974, signed a recording contract with Hansa Records, and became an alternative glam rock outfit in the mould of David Bowie, T. Rex, and the New York Dolls. A fan of the New York Dolls, Sylvian adopted his stage name from Sylvain Sylvain, while his brother took Jansen from David Johansen. Over a period of a few years, their music became more sophisticated, drawing initially on the art rock stylings of Roxy Music. Their visual image also evolved and, although they had worn make-up since their creation in the mid-1970s, the band was tagged with the New Romantic label in the early 1980s. The band themselves disputed any connection with the New Romantic movement, and Sylvian stated: "I don't like to be associated with them. The attitudes are so very different." Of Japan's fashion sense, Sylvian said: "For them [New Romantics], fancy dress is a costume. But ours is a way of life. We look and dress this way every day." In an October 1981 interview, at the pinnacle of the New Romantic movement in mainstream pop music, Sylvian commented: "There's a period going past at the moment that may make us look as though we're in fashion."
Japan released five studio albums between March 1978 and November 1981. In 1980, the band signed with Virgin Records, where Sylvian remained as a recording artist for the next twenty years. The band suffered from personal and creative clashes, particularly between Sylvian and Karn, with tensions springing from Sylvian's relationship with Yuka Fujii, a photographer, artist, and designer, and Karn's former girlfriend. Fujii quickly became an influential figure in Sylvian's life. She was the first person to introduce Sylvian seriously to jazz, which in turn inspired him to follow musical avenues not otherwise open to him. She also encouraged Sylvian to incorporate spiritual discipline into his daily routine. Throughout his solo career, Fujii maintained a large role in the design of artwork for his albums. Japan played their final concerts in December 1982 before dissolving, their ultimate show taking place in Nagoya on 16 December.
1980s–1990s: Solo career In 1982, Sylvian released his first solo record, a double A-side single and the result of a collaborative effort with Ryuichi Sakamoto, entitled "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music". Sakamoto's first contribution to Sylvian's work, though, had been as co-writer of "Taking Islands in Africa" on the Japan album Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980). Sylvian also worked with Sakamoto on the UK Top 20 song "Forbidden Colours" for the 1983 Nagisa Oshima film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Sylvian's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees, released in June 1984, was a critical and commercial success. The album included contributions from Sakamoto, Kenny Wheeler, Jon Hassell, Holger Czukay, Ronny Drayton, Danny Thompson, and from Sylvian's former bandmates Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri. The lead single became the UK Top 20 single "Red Guitar", with a promo video directed by Anton Corbijn.
Between 19 and 30 June 1984, Hamiltons Gallery in London held an exhibition, Perspectives, of Polaroid photographs by Sylvian. The major exhibition of his work coincided with the release of his book Perspectives – Polaroids 82–84, documenting these pictures. There were also exhibitions in Tokyo and Turin.
In 1985, Sylvian released an instrumental EP Words with the Shaman, in collaboration with Jansen, Hassell, and Czukay. The recording was re-released the same year on a compilation album, Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities, with the addition of "Steel Cathedrals", a piece recorded with Sakamoto, Czukay, Jansen, Wheeler, Robert Fripp and Masami Tsuchiya. "Steel Cathedrals" was the soundtrack to a 20-minute video. The short film was shot in two days during November 1984 in and around the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. A large part of the music was completed during that same month and recorded over a period of three days. Sylvian later updated the material in London in an attempt to elaborate on the theme started earlier in Japan, and to further improve the quality of the soundtrack. He would identify "Steel Cathedrals" as his first experience with improvisations.
Sylvian's demo "Sylvian's Machine" became Propaganda's single "p:Machinery", released in 1985. Singer Claudia Brücken stated that Sylvian helped them with his writing and musical skills on "p:Machinery", pretty much influencing the final structure and atmosphere of the piece.
His next release was the two-record set Gone to Earth, which featured one record of atmospheric vocal tracks and a second record consisting of ambient instrumentals. The album contained significant contributions from noted guitarists Bill Nelson (formerly of Be-Bop Deluxe) and Robert Fripp (of King Crimson), and a rhythm section comprising Steve Jansen on drums and Ian Maidman of Penguin Cafe Orchestra on bass. Released on 13 September 1986, the album reached Number 24 on the UK Album chart.
Composition of new material in early 1987 was followed by recording sessions at Chateau Miraval in the south of France, and by May 1987 Secrets of the Beehive was completed, finally being released in October 1987.
Secrets of the Beehive made greater use of acoustic instruments and was musically oriented towards sombre, emotive ballads laced with string arrangements by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Brian Gascoigne. It reached number 37 in the UK charts and remained for two weeks.
The album was followed by his first live outing as a solo artist, in an 80-day world tour called "In Praise of Shamans", from March to June 1988. Alongside Sylvian were Jansen, Barbieri, guitars and keyboards from Robbie Aceto, brass and sax from Mark Isham, bass from Ian Maidman and lead guitar from David Torn. There were no songs from Sylvian's former band Japan in the setlist.
"Beehive was the summation of all the solo material that went before it", Sylvian said. "I knew when I had finished I wouldn't be returning to quite the same waters again. The period following on from...Beehive was the hardest of my life. A descent into hell."
Following Secrets of the Beehive, it would be 1999 before he released his next solo offering, as he descended into a prolonged period of clinical depression. The crisis began to gather momentum prior to undertaking a 1988 tour. That took its toll and Sylvian found himself in a frighteningly unstable state, which he would experience in varying degrees of intensity over the next 3 or 4 years. Sylvian was unable to work in isolation, but at the same time felt the need to throw himself into collaborative project after collaborative project in a hope of recognising via his response something of what he was dealing with. At these times, manifestations of the crisis were less apparent.
Ultimately he left behind his Christian roots and via explorations of widely varied philosophies ranging from the writings of Gurdjieff to Gnosticism to Zen Buddhism, all of which left its traces in his lyrics and music, he settled on Buddhism as his primary spiritual path.
Never one to conform to commercial expectations, Sylvian then collaborated with Holger Czukay. Sylvian was at Can's studio in Cologne in 1986 to do a vocal for Czukay's record, but instead they started to improvise, and recorded the first piece in three nights. Their collaborative album, Plight and Premonition, was released in March 1988 while Sylvian was still on tour. Flux and Mutability was released the following year, and it also included contributions from Can members Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli. Flux and Mutability was less spontaneous in its conception than Plight and Premonition. For Flux, Sylvian travelled to Cologne for a two-week creative Christmas break at the end of 1988, so this was planned unlike the unexpected genesis of Plight.
Virgin decided to close out the 1980s with the release of Weatherbox, an elaborate boxed-set compilation designed by Russell Mills, consisting of Sylvian's four previous solo albums. Concurrent with Weatherbox, Sylvian released the non-album single "Pop Song".
In 1990, Sylvian collaborated with artists Russell Mills and Ian Walton on the elaborate multi-media installation using sculpture, sound, and light titled Ember Glance – The Permanence of Memory. The exhibition was staged in September and October 1990 at the temporary museum 'Space FGO-Soko' on Tokyo Bay, Shinagawa, Tokyo.
1991–1994: Rain Tree Crow and Robert Fripp The members of Japan came together once more, as Rain Tree Crow, after a nine-year hiatus. The majority of the material was written as a result of group improvisations, with no rehearsals. This approach to writing was an integral element to the whole project, and in many ways it was the reason for the collaboration. The Rain Tree Crow project had initially been conceived as a long term album deal, with Sylvian's insistence that the name Japan would not be used in conjunction with its promotion. But the recording went over budget and Virgin refused to put in any more money unless the name Japan could be used. The resulting deadlock was resolved by Sylvian's decision to finance the mixing of the album personally. However, the group was no longer interested in re-forming, and the album was released as a one-off.Article by Nigel Humberstone (SOUND ON SOUND magazine, June ’91)