Like everything else he does, musical iconoclast
David Sylvian's idea of a retrospective compilation is very different from the norm.
Sleepwalkers is a 16-track, hour-plus collection focused on his many collaborations during the previous decade. Included are alternate takes from his own albums, remixes, reworked material and his contributions to the albums of others. There is one new cut, pointing to the future:
"Five Lines" with Japanese composer
Dai Fujikura, is a complex art song with a string quartet. (According to
Sylvian,
Fujikura is working with him on a completely new, orchestral version of
Manofon.) This new piece is one of the many highlights. Another is
"Playground Martyrs," from brother
Steve Jansen's album,
Slope. While
Jansen handles most of the instrumentation and a string arrangement,
Sylvian delivers one of the most sonorous vocal performances of his career. Another track from
Slope,
"Ballad Of A Deadman," features a duet with
Joan Wasser (
Joan as Police Woman) on a mutant 12-bar
blues. Thematically, light mixes with dark, and genres criss cross. On
"Exit/Delete," from
Takagi Masakatsu's
Coieda, acoustic guitars, strings and ambient textures create something gauzy and nearly upbeat, while
Sylvian delivers a devastating lyric, in equally upmood manner a la
Lou Reed's
Berlin, about an overdose suicide.
"World Citizen - I Won't Be Disappointed" was co-composed with
Ryuichi Sakamoto and was the single from his
Chasm release. The spoken word
"Angels," is a collaboration with
Jan Bang and
Erik Honore from the album
Crime Scenes, while
"Thermal," another recitation, features
Bang,
Arve Henricksen and
Eivind Aarset. One of the album's more provocative pieces is
"Transit," with
Christian Fennesz from the guitarist's
Venice release. There are two selections here from
Snow Borne Sorrow, by
Nine Horses, the collaborative project between
Burnt Friedman,
Jansen and
Sylvian; both pieces are lovely but
"The Day The Earth Stood Still," with its saxophones and multiple vibraphones is gorgeous. The title track is an outtake from the
Manofon sessions that began as an instrumental handed to
Sylvian by
Martin Brandlmayr of
Polwechsel. Its vocals are scathing, bitter, more extreme than almost anything in
Sylvian's catalog.
Sleepwalkers is a provocative and compelling listen, full of moods, shapes, colors, spaces, and textures.
Sylvian has created (aestehtically at least) something approaching an entirely new offering from various chapters in his recent musical past. ~ Thom Jurek
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