ARTISTS occupying ambient/avant-garde territory tread a fine line between the atmospheric and the plain dull.
Some of David Sylvian's previous offerings have been hard work indeed, but Camphor offers pleasant surprises. The clunking opener, All Of My Mother's Names, suggests we are in for a rough ride, but things improve. Sylvian has some interesting people working with him on this album of collaborations, including tabla man Talvin Singh, guitarists Bill Nelson and Robert Fripp, and bassist Danny Thompson.
The result is a far broader palette than, for example, 1999's Approaching Silence. There's a gentle Indian influence on the reflective Song Which Gives The Key To Perfection, and Wave is beautifully orchestrated by the late Simon Jeffes, the man behind the Penguin Caf Orchestra. The highlight, however, is Mother And Child on which Nils Paeter Molvaer's melancholic, late-night trumpet is by any standards "nice".
Updated: 11:45 Thursday, June 20, 2002
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