Record of the day: David Sylvian, “Brilliant Trees”
David Sylvian
“Brilliant Tree” (Virgin CD CDV2290)
The first solo work by an author incapable of publishing anything less than perfect, “Brilliant Trees” is one of the most beautiful albums of all time, capable of drawing a large area of shade in your sunny August days.
Having left the Japan adventure, David Sylvian has begun with this album to undertake a solitary path, completely alien to the commercial world, which starting from his experiences as a rock musician has led him to approach the search for
authors such as Robert Fripp, Holger Czukay, Ryuichi Sakamoto (both guests on the album) and Brian Eno, but at the same time maintaining a strong acoustic imprint within their music.
Sylvian has a stunning voice that has few equals in the world and a very refined compositional vein, which over the years has become increasingly shrouded in melancholy through magnificent albums such as “Gone to Earth”, “Secrets of the Beehive”, “Dead Bees on a Cake” and “Everything and Nothing” until reaching the depths of “Blemish”, a heartbreaking masterpiece that documents with the merciless precision of a pathologist the anguished period following his divorce.
His songs need time to be appreciated in their complexity, but this does not mean they lack the ability to be communicative; supported by Sylvian’s fascinating vocal timbre, the melodies of “Brilliant Trees” hit the target with calm and precision, accompanied by extremely rarefied lyrics, although rich in symbolic images.
There is no shortage of more rhythmic chapters, such as “Red Guitar” and “Pulling Punches”, but for the most part the album relies on atmospheres of sophisticated tranquility, reaching the zenith of beauty in the title track, based on an organ chord progression with an almost Bachian flavour that gradually takes on increasingly dreamlike contours where Jon Hassell’s trumpet, multiplied by a harmonizer, superimposes phrases of moving beauty.
The production of Steve Nye, one of the best English producers, is as always characterized by an absolute perfection of sound and mixing, where every little detail is subjected to an intense process of scrutiny in order to illuminate its essence.
Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.
This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.
