Sylvian was born in 1958, in Beckenham, Kent, UK. The band Japan, whose other members included Mick Karn, Rob Dean, Richard Barbieri and Sylvian's brother Steve Jansen, began as a group of friends who grew up together. As youngsters they played music together as a means of escape, playing David's two-chord numbers – sometimes with Mick as the frontman, sometimes with David as the frontman. On Christmas of 1973 David's parents gave drums to Steve and a guitar to David.
Eventually, they christened themselves Japan in 1974 and became an alternative glam rock outfit in the mold of David Bowie and The New York Dolls. Over a period of a few short years, however, their music became more sophisticated – drawing initially on the art rock stylings of Roxy Music. Their visual image also evolved and the band was tagged with the New Romantic label. Indeed, it could be argued that Japan were at the forefront of the entire New Romantic movement, even though the band never associated themselves with it. However, their later albums were more sophisticated musically and lyrically than New Romantic bands such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Visage as they generally lacked the obvious pop hooks. Indeed Duran Duran wanted Japan to produce their first album, but they declined the offer. Japan recorded five studio albums between March 1978 and November 1981, with each recording being more sophisticated than the last. Their biggest hit single, the minimalist 'Ghosts', which reached the Top 5 in the UK charts in 1982, was a clear pointer to Sylvian's future direction.
After a successful tour, the band fragmented in late-1982, and Sylvian embarked upon a solo career. Japan's final show was on 16th December 1982 in Nagoya, Japan. The live album from this tour, Oil On Canvas, made the Top 5 in the UK album charts in 1983.
Sylvian's singing met with a great deal of early criticism for sounding affected, and too much in imitation of Roxy Music's frontman Bryan Ferry. But by the end of Japan's run, his voice had begun to mature into its own distinctive baritone.
The usual recounting of the ending of Japan has to do with various interpersonal relationships, tensions therein including Sylvian linking with Yuka Fujii, a photographer, artist and designer who also happened to be Mick Karn's former girlfriend. According to Sylvian, however, the real reason for the break-up was Karn creating songs for his first solo album and thus betraying an unspoken rule within the band about how all their musical energies should be poured into the band. In an interview with Mojo Magazine (April, 1999), Sylvian states: "I gave Mick the ultimatum: if you want a solo career, let's break the band up. He said, 'I'd like to keep the group going as well' – a safety net, and that didn't feel right."
By the early-1980s neither Sylvian nor Japan had achieved the same level of awareness in the United States as they had in the UK and Europe. But the chosen name of Japan had seen their career taking off in that country.
Yuka became an important figure in David's life. She was an established artist when she met Sylvian. Her reasons for coming to England, from her native Japan, included the wish to photograph British jazz musicians. Through Yuka, Sylvian was introduced to the world of jazz music, which gave him the inspiration to continue the direction that began with the later Japan tracks. Yuka also influenced Sylvian to incorporate spiritual discipline into his daily life. Throughout David's solo career, Yuka has had a role in the design of David's album artwork, often handling the cover art entirely herself. David and Yuka formed Opium (Arts) to manage David's interests.
Around the time of Sylvian's first solo album he also collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto on the soundtrack music for the Nagisa Oshima film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), which produced a Top 20 hit single, Forbidden Colours, credited to Sylvian/Sakamoto.
[edit] Exorcising Ghosts
Sylvian's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees (1984), met with critical acclaim and yielded the single "Red Guitar", another Top 20 hit. Guest artists included Jon Hassell and Holger Czukay. His follow-up was an ambitious two-record set, Gone to Earth (1986), which flouted convention (and perhaps commercial wisdom) by featuring one record of songs (predominantly atmospheric ballads) and one consisting almost entirely of ambient instrumental tracks. Guest artists included guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson. Sylvian then co-wrote two songs ('Buoy' and 'Let The Happiness In') and provided vocals on Mick Karn's 1987 album Dreams of Reason Produce Monsters.
His third album, Secrets of the Beehive (1987), was more acoustic and oriented towards somber, emotive ballads laced with shimmering string arrangements by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It yielded one of Sylvian's most well-received songs, Orpheus, and was supported by his first solo tour, 1988's In Praise of Shamans. Sylvian's touring band included ex-Japan bandmates Jansen and Barbieri along with trumpeter Mark Isham, bassist Ian Maidman and guitarists David Torn and Robbie Aceto.
Never one to conform to commercial expectations, Sylvian then collaborated on several ambient music projects, including Plight And Premonition and Flux + Mutability with former Can bassist Holger Czukay and Ember Glance - The Permanence of Memory with artist Russell Mills.
In 1990, a highly-anticipated Japan reunion ended in acrimony. Sylvian insisted on calling the project and the album Rain Tree Crow, to the dismay of both his label Virgin Records (who were hoping for a hit "comeback" album) and his former bandmates. Considering that the entire band had reformed after eight years apart (aside from guitarist Rob Dean), this was considered an odd and pretentious choice. The RTC sessions became increasingly acrimonious as Sylvian reportedly assumed a controlling temperament over the entire recording, turning the record, in effect, into his newest solo project. This led to renewed alienation between Sylvian and Karn, and the pair have not worked together since. Like Tin Drum, the Rain Tree Crow recordings were a breakthrough in performance and recording. Guitarists Bill Nelson, Phil Palmer and Michael Brook augmented the quartet for the recording of the album.
Yuka and David separated shortly after the release of Rain Tree Crow in 1991. Around the same time, Ingrid Chavez, one of Prince's associates and signed to his Paisley Park Records, sent Sylvian a copy of her first album. He liked what he heard and found her voice fitted in perfectly with new material he had been working on with Ryuichi Sakamoto. The single Heartbeat was the result. After a tumultuous beginning, David and Ingrid decided to travel together throughout the UK and the USA, where they eventually settled after marrying in 1992.
In late 1991, Robert Fripp approached Sylvian and asked him to be part of a new King Crimson. Sylvian declined the invitation, and instead suggested they work on a future collaboration. With frequent Fripp associate Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick, and performing a set of newly composed material, Sylvian and Fripp toured Japan and Italy during the spring of 1992. With the addition of Jerry Marotta on drums and Marc Anderson on percussion, the group went into the studio in late 1992 to document the material they had written together.
In July of 1993, Sylvian startled many of his long-term fans by teaming with Fripp on the album The First Day, which married Sylvian's philosophical lyrics to funk workouts and hard-driving progressive rock songs very much in the mold of King Crimson. The group went back out on the road to promote the album in the fall of 93. Sylvian, Fripp and Gunn were joined by infinite guitarist Michael Brook and ex-Mister Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto for The Road To Graceland Tour. A subsequent live recording, titled Damage and released in 1994, was culled from the final show on the tour. Fripp, Gunn and Mastelotto went on to work in the reformed King Crimson that Fripp had originally wished for Sylvian to front.
In an art space, called P3 (P3 Art and Environment), located in the basement of a modern Zen temple, called Tochoji, in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Fripp and Sylvian collaborated on an exhibition called "David Sylvian and Robert Fripp: Redemption – Approaching Silence". The installation featured projected images and text in a dimly-lit room, illuminated only by candles. The music was available as a cassette-only version. The exhibition ran from August 30, 1994 to September 18, 1994, P3, Tokyo, Japan. The accompanying music was composed by David Sylvian, with text by Robert Fripp.
In the late summer of 1995, Sylvian undertook a one-man solo tour of which he named "Slow Fire - A Personal Retrospective". Performing alone either on an acoustic guitar or a keyboard, Sylvian drew largely upon his first three solo albums for song selection. He also included a few rearrangements from the more recent excursions with Rain Tree Crow and Robert Fripp. The tour marked the end of a highly productive four years.
A period of relative musical inactivity followed, during which time Sylvian and Chavez moved from Minnesota to the Napa Valley in California. They have two daughters, each with Sanskrit names. Chavez pursued her interest in photography and music. During this time, Sylvian and Chavez recorded material for a possible Chavez solo work that was never formally released.
In 1999, Sylvian released Dead Bees on a Cake, his first solo album since Beehive. It showed the most eclectic influence of all his recordings, ranging from soul music to jazz fusion to Eastern spiritual chants, and most of the songs' lyrics reflected the now 41-year-old Sylvian's inner peace from his marriage, family and beliefs. Guest artists included longtime friend Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as Talvin Singh, Marc Ribot, Kenny Wheeler and Bill Frisell.
Following Dead Bees, Sylvian released a pair of compilation albums through Virgin, the two-disc retrospective Everything & Nothing and Camphor, the former focusing on vocal tracks and the latter on instrumental recordings. An effort to promote "Everything and Nothing" found Sylvian touring the world with a band that included his brother back on drums, Tim Young on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass, and Matt Cooper on keyboards. The US leg was shortened due to poor ticket sales.
David Sylvian in performance with his brother Steve Jansen.Sylvian parted ways with Virgin and launched his own independent label, Samadhi Sound. The first proposed project was a collaboration with his brother, and work was begun with bassist Keith Lowe in the fall of 2002. During a break in the proceedings, Sylvian experimented alone with treated sounds made from his guitar and computer. The results were recorded during February of 2003. A few months later, he released the album Blemish. The disc was shockingly stark in its sound and content. The subject matter dealt primarily with the impending dissolution of Sylvian's marriage. With the collaborative effort now put on the backburner due to the strong reception for the new disc, Sylvian and Jansen headed out to promote Blemish with Masakatsu Takagi for their A Fire In The Forest Tour in 2003 and 2004.
The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter, an album of remixes of tracks from Blemish, came out in 2005.
With the conclusion of A Fire In The Forest Tour in 2004, work resumed on the joint project between Sylvian and Jansen. Contributors included past collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Robert Fripp (though his part was excised from the finished product). Yet the course of the album took on a completely new tone after Sylvian's decision to add keyboardist/programmer Burnt Friedman to the proceedings and make him an equal partner in the collaboration. The band name of Nine Horses was adopted and their first cd, titled Snow Borne Sorrow, was released in October of 2005. The album successfully fused together elements of pop, avant garde jazz, folk and electronica, creating an overall sound that seemed like a logical path for Sylvian to follow. In January 2007, Nine Horses released a follow-up e.p., Money For All, which included new material as well as remixes of selected songs from their first cd.
(March 1978) Adolescent Sex
(October 1978) Obscure Alternatives
(December 1979) Quiet Life
(November 1980) Gentlemen Take Polaroids
(November 1981) Tin Drum
(June 1983) Oil On Canvas - 2LP live
(July 1984) Exorcising Ghosts - compilation of Japan's Virgin Records material
(December 2005) The Very Best of Japan
(1984) Brilliant Trees
(1985) Words With The Shaman - EP with Jon Hassell and Holger Czukay
(1985) Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities
(1986) Gone to Earth
(1987) Secrets of the Beehive
(1988) Plight and Premonition- with Holger Czukay
(1989) Flux and Mutability - with Holger Czukay
(1990) Ember Glance : The Permanence Of Memory - with Russell Mills
(1991) Rain Tree Crow - with Rain Tree Crow
(1993) The First Day - with Robert Fripp
(1994) Damage: Live - with Robert Fripp - Re-released in 2001
(1999) Dead Bees on a Cake
(1999) Approaching Silence
(2000) Everything and Nothing
(2002) Camphor
(2003) Blemish
(2005) The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter - Blemish remixes
(2005) Snow Borne Sorrow - with Nine Horses
(2007) Money For All - EP with Nine Horses