AS a teenager, David Sylvian’s heroes were Bowie and Roxy Music. Five years later he was a hero himself; the darling of the new romantics and singer with Japan.
But the Bowie/Ferry influence was to take Sylvian into far deeper realms than his fellow romantics and nowhere more so than during his solo career, which this compilation explores. CD1 deals with the more mainstream Japanesque material, but CD2 shows how eclectic Sylvian was to become.
Sadly, only one track (Jean the Birdman) from his excellent collaboration with Robert Fripp, but three from his most avant-garde album Blemish and another three from Snow Borne Sorrow standout; Wonderful World and The Banality Of Evil in particular. To close, Small Metal Gods and Snow White in Appalachia from the free jazz and rather disturbing Manafon illustrate how, unlike his heroes, Sylvian eschewed commercial success in favour of artistic experimentation.
Disillusionment and despondency may be his hallmark, but delivered so exquisitely, Sylvian turns them into things of great beauty.
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