Wonderful World

‘how beautiful life is’

The US leg of the Everything and Nothing tour wound to a close with a show at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on 14 May 2002. It wasn’t long before David Sylvian’s attention turned towards new work after an extended period compiling and completing material from the preceding 20 years, firstly for the excellent vocal cd set which gave the tour its name and then for its instrumental companion, Camphor, which came out a couple of weeks after the LA gig.

Immediately following the tour, Sylvian’s brother, Steve Jansen, who had performed as drummer and percussionist in the stage band, took up residence at the New Hampshire property that was home to Sylvian, his wife Ingrid Chavez and their young family. ‘God, it gets increasingly difficult to place events firmly in time,’ wrote Sylvian later when the Nine Horses record – a trio with Jansen and Burnt Friedman – was released in 2005. ‘I’m trying to recall how this project got started. I’m not entirely convinced of the dates nor of the intervals between, but it seems that Steve and I started writing together in the late summer or fall of 2002, at least that’s what the dates on the digital photographs appear to tell me.’

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Ride – live

Chance adventures

Early in 1997, slipped in with the latest edition of the Medium newsletter – the official information service for Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn, was a simple A5 flyer. ‘LIVE at the London Astoria 2, Saturday 12 April 1997,’ it declared, ‘a one-off event with special guests.’

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The Banality of Evil

‘a more unpredictable approach’

Robert Fripp’s online diary, 20th October 2004:
‘Today’s work in London is a recording session for David Sylvian’s new solo album. Eden Studios is conveniently just around the corner from the bijou Chateau de Petite Chevalle [an affectionate reference to the Willcox/Fripp residence in Chiswick, just north of the Thames in London].

Today’s session: for me, a treat. David & his brother Steve were both waiting when I arrived…’

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A History of Holes

The stories we create to tell ourselves

Snow Borne Sorrow by Nine Horses is an album that emerged from a strange origin of creative alchemy. Two projects were underway: collaborations between David Sylvian and Steve Jansen, and between Sylvian and the German composer/programmer Burnt Friedman (initially featuring Jaki Liebezeit). Nine Horses arrived in 2005 but the Jansen/Sylvian collaboration began much earlier, indeed some pieces pre-dated Sylvian’s startling 2003 solo album Blemish. The latter exhibited a quite different approach to the material under development with Jansen, displaying a pared back approach to instrumentation and with improvisation at its heart in both music and lyrics.

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