artist: David Sylvian country of origin: UK style(s): Ambient pop, art rock, environmental, ethno-ambient essential releases: Gone To Earth (1986, Virgin) Plight And Premonition [with Holger Czukay] (1988, Virgin) Flux And Mutability [with Holger Czukay] (1989, Virgin) Approaching Silence [with Frank Perry & Robert Fripp] (1999, Virgin) Camphor (2002, Virgin)

David Sylvian has made some fine ambient music since the dissolution of his art rock band Japan in the early 1980’s. Though he is an accomplished songwriter, the albums listed above are largely instrumental. The half-instrumental/half-vocal Gone To Earth establishes a solo style not too far away from Japan with its fragile, poetic, distinctively English compositions for piano, synthesisers and sundry other instruments. The album’s guest list is an impressive one including guitarist Robert Fripp and trumpeter John Hassell. Plight And Premonition is the first of two collaborations with former Can member Holger Czukay and the album's two extended, droning compositions are a highly sensitive and subtle marriage of electronics with ethnic flavours. Mesmerising and meticulously detailed, it's all atmospheric keyboards and eerie chimes, embellished with seductive Eastern and Mid-eastern textures. Flux and Mutability is similarly structured, rich in detail and rewards careful listening.

From an ambient perspective the 90's were a relative barren period for Sylvian. Finally in 1999 came Approaching Silence, comprised of music from an art installation and once again consisting of long, brooding tracks. Frank Perry contributes subtle and exotic percussion on one track, Robert Fripp plays his trademark ambient guitar loops and delay on the other. The album is more atmosphere than music in any conventional sense but its compelling late night ambience nonetheless, with a purity that compares with classic early Eno and the more abstract music of American Steve Roach. Camphor is a fine compilation of instrumentals dating from the early 80's onwards - some original, some edited, and some new arrangements of songs with the vocals removed. A good album to check out and see if Sylvian's personal, fragile style of soundscaping is to your taste.

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