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Monday 23 March 2020

Monday's Long Songs


David Sylvian's name has popped up in a few places recently, largely unconnected I think (although these things usually end up being connected somehow). I read about his solo albums in Rob Young's Electric Eden book, a long meandering trawl through British folk music and how in the 80s various people- Sylvian, Talk Talk, Cope- reconnected with visionary folk music in one way or another. Then, having moved on and semi- forgot about it he came back via social media and then came up in conversation with a friend who's a big Bowie fan when talking about Fripp. I dug a little into Youtube but didn't buy anything and again moved on. Then last week digging around Richard Norris' Soundcloud page, a proper treasure trove of tracks, remixes and versions, I found his 1993 remix of Sylvian and Fripp. Richard took the original track, Darshan (The Road To Graceland), a seventeen minute epic and remixed it, shaving a minute off in the process. An ambient opening section followed by a long, funky, experimental art- pop journey with a '93 house beat.



Sylvian and Fripp the turned up a few days ago at Echorich's place (linked on yesterday's post) with the dreamy two and half minutes of Endgame, ambient opening and then acoustic guitar and voice, which has sent me scurrying down a rabbithole. The Richard Norris remix of Darshan came out on a CD mini- album, only three songs long but well over forty minutes long in total. Richard Norris's remix, the original version and this ten minute ambient psychedelic swirl re-construction from the Future Sound Of London. Float on. Ambient special as i-D noted in '93.

7 comments:

George said...

I have just spent the last 34 and a bit minutes listening to The Grid remix and I think the original (courtesy of the video sharing website). Whilst having beans on toast for breakfast. U can recommend this to others.

Swiss Adam said...

Hi George, sounds ideal. I endorse this message.

What's the situation like in Portugal?

Richard Norris said...

We still have a full Grid album in collaboration with Robert Fripp that is going to surface at some stage. Includes stereo and 5.1 versions :)

George said...

Hi Adam. Well, the parliament declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Only necessary movement allowed, cafes etc shut only supermarkets, pharmacies and vets open. Schools and universities have been shut since March 13th. You are allowed to walk your dog (so I walked 7km this morning to the farm with the house dog), go shopping for food, but shopping "malls" are shut. Streets very quiet, eerily quiet at night round our town. The situation is very very bad in the north around Porto, and Lisbon, ie where the population centres are, with 1500 cases. Our district, the Alentejo, which is 30% of the country by land area but 5% by population has very very few cases. No stories of empty shelves anywhere in the country, but in one place "up north" many many people went for a stroll along an esplanade (this behaviour was widely condemned). I suspect it's really taking off now, and given the poor state of the health service (there'«s been a terrible shortage of doctors and nurses for years) the short term looks very bleak. But from what I can tell, the president and government have a lot of support, and seem to be trying to act rather than react, and give simple, unambiguous messages.

Swiss Adam said...

George- sounds like a bit of a mixture. Look after yourselves.

Richard- looking forward to that getting released.

Echorich said...

Always glad to have a hand in reminding anyone, of the work of David Sylvian. I have been massive fan for over 40 years now, having discovered Japan after the release of their second album. The band's journey to the exotic, shimmering sound of their last two albums was one marked by many shifts in style and approach.
Sylvian's solo work started as a natural extension of the sound which he had dominated as Japan came to an end, but quickly moved on as he incorporated the influences of Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson, Jon Hassell and especially Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The work Sylvian and Fripp began on Sylvian's masterpiece of a second solo album would be revisited half a decade later on the album, The First Day, which is where Darshan comes from. You get some clues on why Fripp considered Sylvian as vocalist on a reactivated King Crimson, but you can also hear why Sylvian made the decision to not narrow his focus by accepting.
If you get a chance, listen to the version on Damage, Fripp/Sylvian's live album. Darshan becomes a funky cousin to Talking Heads Remain In Light era with a nod Scary Monster era Bowie.

As to the remixes of Darshan, I remember how excited and entranced I was the first time I played the EP. It got me from one end of my subway ride into work in Manhattan from Queens, transporting me out of the croweded subway car and into a world of color and weightlessness.

Michael Doherty said...

Yippee!