Sleepwalkers [Import]

Throughout his career Sylvian has worked with many collaborators and this compilation brings together 15 of his collaborations from the past decade, with the final track being a solo production. Much like Sylvian's 2000 compilation "Everything is Nothing" most of the tracks have been remixed, but not to any radical extent. All the tracks have been remastered and the CD is housed in a neat digipak with some quality artwork.

Highlights include the three Nine Horses tracks, particularly "Wonderful World", where Sylvian's dulcet tenor vocals work in perfect tandem with Swedish songstress Stina Nordenstam, and the Ryuichi Sakamoto collaboration "World Citizen". It doesn't match 1983's "Forbidden Colours" (what does?), but it is a quality song nonetheless. "Exit/Delete" with Takagi Masakatsu has a simple but intricate folkish vibe and features some top drawer lyrics from Sylvian.

The one new track, "Five Lines" with Dai Fujikura, finds Sylvian accompanied by a string quartet. It's a sparse affair and it is, disappointingly, one of the weakest songs here. Sylvian and Fujikura are currently reworking Sylvians's 2009 "Manafon" album, which will feature original orchestration by Fujikura and some new compositions. It's due for release in 2011.

The list of collaborators and the original albums that these tracks are taken from:

1. Sleepwalkers: Martin Brandlmayr (The World Is Everything 2007 Tour Sampler).
2. Money For All: Nine Horses (Money for All).
3. Ballad of a Deadman: Steve Jansen (Slope).
4. Angels: Punkt (Crime Scenes).
5. World Citizen: Ryuichi Sakamoto (World Citizen).
6. Five Lines: Dai Fujikura (Previously unreleased).
7. The Day The Earth Stole Heaven: Nine Horses (Snow Borne Sorrow).
8. Playground Martyrs: Steve Jansen (Slope).
9. Exit/Delete: Takagi Masakatsu (Coieda).
10. Pure Genius: Tweaker (2 Am Wake Up Call).
11. Wonderful World: Nine Horses (Snow Borne Sorrow).
12. Transit: Fennesz (Venice).
13. The World Is Everything: Takuma Watanbe (The World Is Everything 2007 Tour Sampler).
14. Thermal: Arve Henriksen (Cartography).
15. Sugarfuel: Readymade (Bold).
16. Trauma: Solo track (Japanese CD and Limited Edition vinyl releases of "Blemish").

It't difficult to know where to catagorise Mr Sylvian these days. Anyone who has followed his career since his days of Japan knows that after pushing the self destruct button on one of the most original bands to come out of the new romantic era, he metaphorically put his Nikes on and sprinted as far away from conventional pop music as he could possibly get.
I for one applaude him, as I myself now gallop (limp) toward my fifth decade I fully understand his need to explore new musical boundaries. As I have grown older there are few artists to whom I listened to as a kid, who are still producing new work which strives to be in anyway different from the albums and styles that made them sucessful in the first place. No problem there, but it is refreshing to also pick up a new album every few years or so and genuinely have no idea what is going to greet your ears when you first press play.
Sleepwalkers is a beautiful and sometimes challenging album featuring a selection of collaborative tracks from the last ten years or so. After the intensity of both "Blemish" and "Manafon", this is somewhat softer record. The experimental improvised style is represented (Trauma, Five Lines, Transit), but so to are some of the most beautiful honeyed songs I've heard in some time. Longtime collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto is featured with "World Citizen",and the selections from his brother, Steve Jansens' album "Slope" (Playground Martyrs and Ballad of a Deadman) make me sorry that I haven't already aquired that little gem.
Funnily enough the selections from the Nine Horses project are the ones that I would remove (possible exception, Money for Nothing). Don't get me wrong as an album I loved "Snow Bourne Sorrow" but somehow they just dont seem to fit with the rest of this selection.
Maybe repeated listens to Blemish and especially Manafon have educated my ears to appreciate his current direction.
The one constant is of course that voice. If like me you been soothed and cradled by it though the last three decades or so, then it will need no further explanation. If on the other hand, you don't get it...well you probably won't have read this far anyway.
So, definately not a greatest hits, but a wonderful place to start,or just to get an idea of what this grossly uderrated artist has been doing for the last decade or so.
To quote a line from Mark Eitzel he "soaks the rules of dreamland in cotton wool and cement".

from the first track to the last david does not disappoint.
this body of work is far more accessible and having tweaked some and rebuilt other tracks,
i found having listened to the work there is a sign of optimism and david has yet again
proved he is pure genius.