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David Sylvian

David Sylvian

35 articles

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David Sylvian: Melancholy Baby

Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 2 January 1982

MELANCHOLY PROPS up his head and whispers, half to himself and half to me... ...

David Sylvian: The Face Interview

Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, October 1982

David Sylvian had agreed to do only three interviews when he returned to England from a month's stay in Japan. The first was for the ...

The Art Of Noise: David Sylvian

Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, May 1984

What's David Sylvian been doing since Japan broke up? Taking Polaroids, traveling, organizing an exhibition – oh, and making a new record. "Art is my ...

David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees (Virgin V2290)

Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 30 June 1984

Hi ho Sylvian ...

David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees (Virgin)

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984

ANY WHO expect David Sylvian's sheaf of essays to present wafery, neutral music must be confounded by the diversity and strength of Brilliant Trees. This ...

David Sylvian: Journeys Into The Interior

Profile and Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 11 August 1984

FOR ONE who seems so still David Sylvian is constantly on the move. ...

David Sylvian Vs. The Pop Goliath

Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Face, March 1986

THE MAN WHO STROLLED INTO the lobby was small and neat, grey-suited with white shoes. His hair was a natural darkish brown a small silver ...

David Sylvian: Blonde On Blonde

Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 23 August 1986

TWO YOUNG men, once blond, face one another and indulge in the absurd activity of taking music seriously. "Almost too seriously," says David Sylvian. The ...

David Sylvian: Gone To Earth

Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 6 September 1986

THE THIRD person entered store after store, priced nothing, spoke no word, and looked at all objects with a wild and vacant stare – having ...

David Sylvian: Gone To Earth (Virgin VDL1)

Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 6 September 1986

MR SYLVIAN has always been refreshingly transparent when it comes to influences. But no matter — he still produces gentle, reflective, delicate but painstakingly crafted ...

David Sylvian: The Man Who Fell To Earth

Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 27 September 1986

As DAVID SYLVIAN settles into the quiet life of solo status, CHRIS ROBERTS appraises the significant stature of his post-Japan harmonics and post-mascara beauty. ...

Scared of Success: David Sylvian — The Man Who Would Be Invisible

Interview by Simon Witter, i-D, November 1987

2019 NOTE: In decades of writing about music, I was only ever once asked to do a hatchet job — on Belouis Some in the ...

Sylvian Gives the People What He Wants

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 April 1988

SAY YOU'VE come under the melancholy spell of David Sylvian's richly atmospheric music — an autumnal wash of strings and electronics, with the singer's low, ...

David Sylvian: The Loner Emerges

Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, May 1988

JAPAN'S RECLUSIVE LEADER FINDS TECHNO-POP MATURITY IN A SOLO AFTERLIFE ...

David Sylvian: Teatro Smeraldo, Milan

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 May 1988

A touch of velvet — Adam Sweeting in Milan finds David Sylvian in mellifluous form ...

David Sylvian: Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Cathi Unsworth, Sounds, 11 June 1988

BENEATH SOFT, subtle lights stands David Sylvian. Shadowed by his keyboards, he's an inconspicuous figure. His shoulder length hair is knotted loosely in a pony ...

David Sylvian: Words of the Shaman

Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 16 September 1989

THE LAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN A PERIOD OF TRANSITION FOR DAVID SYLVIAN, BUT HE'S NOW IN A NEW COLLABORATION WITH HOLGER CZUKAY AND A ...

David Sylvian: Life in the Beehive

Report and Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1989

DAVID SYLVIAN sits back and thinks about the work. "There are evident failures and occasional successes, but my opinion of the work doesn't change much. ...

David Sylvian: Weatherbox

Review by Robert Sandall, Q, January 1990

POP STARDOM, AND all the tabloid accolades which followed his unofficial award "Most Beautiful Man in Britain" 1981, did not agree with David Sylvian. ...

Robert Fripp, David Sylvian: Double Edge

Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 30 June 1993

Guitar hero meets cool synth dude on The First Day, a new album by Robert Fripp and David Sylvian. They should go together like a ...

David Sylvian: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 1996

ACOUSTIC GUITAR, DHOTI, sensible shoes. Who'd have thought it, back in the techno tailor's dummy days of lipstick, peroxide and synthesizers? ...

David Sylvian

Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, April 1999

He was the sensitive soul who fronted south London’s dodgiest glam-rockers, the World’s Most Lovely Man who chose tortured sainthood, pop’s preening popinjay who reinvented ...

We Have Ways of Making You Talk: David Sylvian

Interview by Chris Roberts, Uncut, May 1999

DAVID SYLVIAN'S first solo album for 12 years, Dead Bees On A Cake, is his most personal and accessible work to date, and features Talvin ...

David Sylvian: Everything And Nothing

Review by Ian Penman, Uncut, November 2000

COLLECTED OUEVRE of Japan's finest ...

David Sylvian

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Surface, April 2001

WHEN, IN 1987, David Sylvian sang the words, "I wrestle with an outlook on life, that shifts between darkness and shadowy light," he spoke of ...

David Sylvian: Blemish

Review by David Toop, The Wire, June 2003

With contributions from Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz, David Sylvian's new record is his most adventurous departure yet. ...

David Sylvian: Blemish

Review by Nick Southall, Stylus, 1 September 2003

DURING THE RECORDING of What's Going On Marvin Gaye would apparently lock himself alone in a room for an hour or more each day to ...

David Sylvian: Festival Hall, London

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 30 September 2003

AN ACQUIRED TASTE at the best of times, David Sylvian did not make life easy for himself or his extraordinarily loyal following at the Festival ...

David Sylvian: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 30 September 2003

JAPAN DISSOLVED with barely a murmur, just as 'Ghosts' brought the band overdue success in 1982. The strain of their avant-garde glam-pop suddenly being in ...

David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees/Alchemy/Gone To Earth/Secret Of The Beehive (Virgin)

Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, October 2003

IN 1989, VIRGIN released Weatherbox, one of the most coveted box sets ever. It underlined the first phase of David Sylvian's solo career; indeed, it ...

David Sylvian: Whatever Happened to the World's Most Beautiful Man?

Profile and Interview by Chris Roberts, Uncut, October 2003

So, David Sylvian, you live halfway up a mountain in New England? "That's the way it is", laughs the singer (and yes, he does laugh. Asked ...

David Sylvian: The Good Son vs the Only Daughter: The Blemish Remixes (Samadhisound)

Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2005

2003's BLEMISH was a significant improvement on David Sylvian's previous album, the far from mediocre Dead Bees On A Cake. ...

David Sylvian: Manafon

Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, December 2009

DESCRIBED BY Sylvian as "a completely modern kind of chamber music; intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical", Manafon picks up where 2003's Blemish concluded. Working with ...

David Sylvian: A Victim Of Stars, 1982-2012

Review and Interview by Andy Gill, Uncut, March 2012

WHEN DAVID SYLVIAN first became a presence on the pop scene on the cusp of the '80s, it was obvious that, like many of that ...

Laughter & Forgetting: The Strange & Frightening World Of David Sylvian

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 19 March 2012

A new compilation, A Victim Of Stars 1982-2012, celebrates thirty years of solo work by David Sylvian, who guides Wyndham Wallace through some of its ...

see also Japan

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