DAVID SYLVIAN BIOGRAPHY - ON THE PERIPHERY Only available for worldwide dispatch from WWW.SYLVIANBIOGRAPHY.COM THE WORLD IS EVERYTHING. During the tour that Sylvian undertook in 2007, he had somewhat of an epiphany, and made one of those decisions that so often happened in his career, and which set him off on a new course musically. This had a resonance with the decisions made way back in the 1980s, as he sloughed off the image and trappings of Japan, and found a skin for himself within which he was more contented as a person, and more creative as a composer. In 2007, a startlingly similar thing occurred. Up until this point, Sylvian had been inhabiting the periphery of popular music, experimenting musically, composing out of the spotlight of the image-conscious popular music scene, and living a life of relative privacy away from the glare of publicity. It was here that he had found the room professionally and personally to compose his music and to live his life in a way that satisfied his requirements. The coincidence of leaving Virgin, setting up Samadhi Sound, the break-up of his relationship with Chavez, the discovery of a new musical language with Blemish, and his increasing fascination with the genres of free improv and EAI, all combined and led Sylvian once again to question his boundaries. He seemed — as previously — to have outgrown his surroundings, and it was time for a re-evaluation of some fundamental aspects of his life. When touring in 2007, playing much of the music from his back catalogue, while at the same time having his mind firmly set on the process of composition that would result in the release of Manafon, he was torn in two. He began to feel himself going through the motions when playing his old work, he felt as if he wasn’t being true to himself and his real interests, and perhaps — more importantly — he wasn’t being true to his audience. It was true to say that Sylvian had typically been a reluctant tourer, and he felt somewhat ill-at-ease during the previous tour off the back of Blemish. While in essence he gained some enjoyment from it, he found its format restricted both himself and Jansen during the performance, as there was not much freedom for interpretation. It was not long into this tour that the brothers had just about exhausted all possible avenues of live exploration with the compositions in the set, and so the performances became routine, each night being a carbon copy of the night before. As this scenario developed, Sylvian reached the conclusion that he did not want to tour again, but was effectively talked into the 2007 tour, it being seen as a means of airing his old material just one more time. It soon became apparent that this was the wrong decision for Sylvian. The World is Everything tour ended in Japan, and Sylvian was shattered. As Sylvian says in new new biography On the Periphery (sylvianbiography) “At the end of the last tour in 07, after the final night in Tokyo, physically unwell and mentally exhausted, a thought flashed through my mind with a sense of finality, ‘David Sylvian is dead.’ With the thought came an immense sense of relief. Obviously the thought was in reference to the persona. That person, whether it was something projected unconsciously or as a means of remaining invisible, or whether it was something projected onto me, was now ill fitting. On that tour, mid way through recording Manafon, I began to feel the gulf between myself and the persona. I no longer inhabited it.” What was reborn at this point was an artist with a clear sense of purpose musically, a focus on free improv and EAI, and a desire, it seemed, to become personally more reclusive than before. No doubt, much of this reclusivity was a product of the predicament he found himself in after separating from Chavez, but it also seemed to be a state that he chose for himself in an attempt to find the creative headroom necessary to think, gestate ideas, and concentrate on the process of artistic creativity. Whether a product of choice or necessity — or an element of both — the Sylvian that was revealed at the time of the release of Manafon was an individual whose solitude was almost complete. https://youtube/watch?v=bX_nbOnIjUo
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 12:23:23 +0000
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