JAPAN: ADOLESCENT SEX (1978)

JAPAN: OBSCURE ALTERNATIVES (1978)

JAPAN: QUIET LIFE (1980)
Produit par Giorgio Moroder et John Punter (le producteur de Roxy Music), le premier succès du groupe.

JAPAN: ASSEMBLAGE (1981)

JAPAN: GENTLEMEN TAKE POLAROIDS (1980)
-Gentlemen take polaroids
-Swing
-Burning bridges
-My new carrer
-Methods of dance
-Ain't that peculiar
-Nightporter
-Taking islands in Africa

Japan n'est pas un groupe de rock progressif, loin de là. On y trouve essentiellement des chansons au rythme quasi new wave (le point de départ étant typiquement le glam rock), mais avec une originalité empruntée aux musiques orientales. L'utilisation subtile et massive des possibilités électroniques des nouveaux instruments est primordiale, ce qui apporte un côté expérimental à cette musique " pop-dance ". La voix de David Sylvian n'est pas encore celle que l'on entend dans ses albums solos à partir du milieu des années 80.

JAPAN: TIN DRUMS (1981)
-The art of parties
-Talking drum
-Ghosts
-Still life in mobile homes
-Sons of pionners
-Cantonese boy
-...

JAPAN: OIL ON CANVAS (1984)
(concert, double vynil)
-Oil on canvas
-Quiet life
-The art of parties
-Voices raised in welcome, hands helds in prayer
-Nightporter
-Sons of pionner
-Cantonese boy
-Still life in mobile homes
-Methods of dance
-Temple of dawn
-Canton
-Visions of China
-Ghosts
-...

David Sylvian: voc, keyb
Steve Jansen: drums, marimba
Mick Karn: bass, voc, sax, clarinet
Richard Barbieri: keyb
Mesami Tsuchiya: guit, keyb

Ce concert offre à la fois une excellente compilation de Japan et une transition vers les albums plus subtils, plus chauds et émouvants de sa carrière solo. Tout à fait indiqué pour connaître Japan !

DAVID SYLVIAN: BRILLIANT TREES (1984)
-Polling punches
-The ink in the well
-Nostalgia
-Red guitar
-Weathered wall
-Backwaters
-Brilliant trees

David Sylvian: voc, guit, piano, synth, percu, tapes
Hoger Czukay: dictaphone guit, french horn, voc
Steve Jansen: drums, percu, synth
Richard Barbieri: synth on 1.5
Riuichi Sakamoto: piano, synth on 4.5.7
Steve Nye: piano, synth on 3.4
John Hassell: trumpet, compo help on 5.7
Phil Palmer: guit on 4.2
Rony Drayton: guit on 1.4
Wayne Braithmarte: bass on 1.4

Album de transition qui demarre a la Japan mais tend vite vers des contrees plus etranges et acoustiques. Mais il reste bancal et peu efficace.

DAVID SYLVIAN: GONE TO EARTH (1986)
(Rque: le CD ne contient pas tous les morceaux du 2nd vynil)
-Taking the veil
David Sylvian: voc, keyb, guitar, radio
Steve Jansen: drums, percu
Ian Maidman: bass
Robert Fripp: guitars
Phil Palmer: ac guit

-Laughter and forgetting
David Sylvian: keyb, atmospherics
John Taylor: piano
Kenny Wheeler: flugelhorn

-Before the bullfight
David Sylvian: voc, keyb, guitar
Steve Jansen: drums, percu
Bill Nelson: solo elec/ac guit
Richard Barbieri: atmospherics
Kenny Wheeler: flugelhorn

-Gone to earth
David Sylvian: voc, guit
Robert Fripp: guitars, frippertronics

-Wave
David Sylvian: voc, keyb, guitar
Steve Jansen: drums, percu
Bill Nelson: guit
Richard Barbieri: atmospherics
Harry Beckett: flugelhorn

-River man
David Sylvian: voc, keyb, guitar
Steve Jansen: percu, sampled bass
Ian Maidman: bass harmonics
Robert Fripp: " sky saw " guitar, frippertronics
Mel Collins: soprano sax

-Silver moon
David Sylvian: voc, keyb, guitar
Steve Jansen: drums
Ian Maidman: bass
Bill Nelson: guitars
Robert Fripp: solo guitar, frippertronics
B.J Cole: pedal steel guitar
Mel Collins: soprano sax

Sur les titres suivants David Sylvian fait tout (sauf parties spécifiées),
-The healing place
(Bill Neslon: solo guit)
-Answered prayers
(Bill Nelson: ac guit)
-Where the railroad meets the sea
(Steve Nye: piano)
-The wooden cross
-Silver moon over sleeping steeples
(B.J. Cole: pedal steel guit)
-Camp fire Coyotte Country
(Robert Fripp: solo guit)
-A bird of prey vanishes into bright blue cloudless sky
-Home
-Sunlight seen through towering trees
(Bill Nelson: solo guit)
-Upon this earth
(Robert Fripp: solo guit)

Cette fois-ci, David Sylvian s'est totalement détaché de l'époque Japan: le deuxième disque est comparable à la musique ambient de Brian Eno, tandis que le premier offre de superbes compositions au ton chaleureux et intime. La confrontation des instruments acoustiques enregistrés à la perfection (guitares acoustiques, basse, batterie, trompette, etc...) tranche avec les étranges nappes synthétiques, véritables créatricess d'ambiances sournoises ou mélancoliques, par delà lesquelles la guitare de Robert Fripp s'exprime parfois...Plus émouvante encore est la fantastique voix de David Sylvian, chaleureuse et douce, qui s'impose sans douleur dans l'esprit pour ne plus le quitter: elle nous susurre à l'oreille ses poèmes enivrants...
Absolument superbe et inmanquable !!

DAVID SYLVIAN: SECRETS OF THE BEEHIVE (1987)
-September
-The boy with the gun
-Maria
-Orpheus
-The Devil's own
-When poets dreamed of angerls
-Mother and child
-Let the happiness in
-Waterfront
-Forbidden colours

David Sylvian: piano, voc, ac guit, organ, synth, tapes
R.Sakamoto: string, woodwind or brass arrangements
+
David Torn: elec guit, guitar loop
D.Thompson: double bass
D.Cummings: percu
P.Palmer: slide guit, ac guit
M.Isham: flugelhorn, trumpet
Steve Jansen: drums, percu
B.Gascoigne: orchestra arr.
Ann O'Dell: string arr.

Un grand classique, tout en finesse et en emotion. Monis experimental mais aussi plus "clair", l'album au complet est une reussite sans faill dont il faut garder le secret pour mieux l'apprecier...

MICK KARN: DREAMS OF REASON PRODUCE MONSTER (1987)
-First impression
-Language of ritual
-Buoy
-Land
-The three fates
-When love walks in
-Dreams of reason
-Answer

Mick Karn: bass, keyb, soprano, alto and tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, accordion, dida, drums, percu, flute, back voc
Steve jansen: keyb, drums, percu, back voc
David Sylvian: voc on 3.6, keyb on 4
Eric Billian: trumpet on 1, french horn on 5
Paul Jones: harmonica on 5
The Burn Church School choir and the Keith Williams Ensemble

SYLVIAN / CZUKAY: PLIGHT AND PREMONITION (1988)

SYLVIAN / CZUKAY: FLUX AND MUTABILITY (1989)
-Flux (a big, bright, colourful world)
David Sylvian: guit, keyb
Holger Czukay: guit, bass, radio, dictaphone, voice
Michael Karoli: guit
Markus Stockhausen: flugelhorn
Jaki Liebezeit: percu
Michi: voice

-Mutability (a new beginning is in the offing)
David Sylvian: guit, keyb
Jaki Liebezeit: african flûte
(buzzes and fluctuations recored live at Can studio dec 88)

2 faces de musique ambient electronique et acoustique, suite logique aux experiences de "Gone to Earth".

JAPAN: THE OTHER SIDE OF JAPAN (1991)
Compilation des premiers titres de Japan que l'on peut trouver sur les trois premiers albums.
-Wish you were black
-Television
-The unconventional
-Transmission
-Automatic gun
-Love is infectious
-Somtimes I feel so low
-The tenant
-In vogue
-Halloween
-A foreign place
-Don't rain on my parade

David Sylvian: voc, compo, guit (de son vrai nom: David Batt)
Steve Jansen: drums (de son vrai nom: Steve Batt, son frère)
Mick Karn: bass, sax (de son vrai nom: Anthony Michaelides)
Richard Barbieri: keyb
Rob Dean: lead guit

STEVE JANSEN AND RICHARD BARBIERI: STORIES ACROSS BORDERS (1991)
-Long tales, tall shadows
-When things dream
-Lumen
-The insomniac's bed
-The night gives birth
-Celebration
-Nocturnal sightseeing
-One more zombie

Steve Jansen: peruc, keyb, piano, clarinet, accordian, computer programming and sequencing
Richard Barbieri: sytnh, keyb, piano, keyb programming and processing
+
Mick Karn: bass, saxaphone, bass clarinet
Susanne J. Murphy: voc

RAIN TREE CROW (1991)
-Big wheels in shanty town
-Every coulour you are
-Rain tree crow
-Red earth
-Pocket full of change
-Boat's for burning
-New moon at red deer wallow
-Blackwater
-A reassuringly dull sunday
-Blackcrow hits shoe shine city
-Scratchings on the Bible belt
-Cries and whispers

David Sylvian: Hammond, guit, elec piano, voc, harmonium
Steve Jansen: drums, percu
Richard Barbieri: synth
Mick Karn: bass, bass clarinet
...

MICHAEL BROOK: COBALT BLUE (1992)
-Shona bridge
-Breakdown
-Red shift
-Skipwave
-Slipstream
-Andean
-Slow breakdown
-Ultramarine
-Urbana
-Lakbossa
-Ten
-Hawaï

Michael Brook: infinite guitar, guitar, synth, buzz bass, percu, guit midi, mbira
Hahn Rowe: violin
James Pinker: keyb bass, acoustic percu, fan drum, bells
Nell Catchpole: violin
Brian Eno: string arrangement, drum machine, treatments
Roger Eno: accordion, vibraphone, piano, synth
Ben Ation: voc
Daniel Lanois: snare du riz (?!), bass, oral percu
Richard Henderson: short wave simulation
Jo Burgess: voice

SYLVIAN/FRIPP: THE FIRST DAY (1993)
-God's monkey
-Jean the birdman
-Firepower
-Brightness falls
-20th century dreaming (a shaman's song)
-Darshan (the road to Graceland)
-Bringing down the light

David Sylvian: guit, tapes, keyb, voc
Robert Fripp: guit, Frippertronics
Trey Gunn: grand and tenor sticks, voc
David Bottrill: treatments, sampled percussion, computer programming
Jerry Marotta: drums, percu
Marc Anderson: percu
Ingrid Chavez: voc

SYLVIAN/FRIPP: DARSHAN (mini 1993)
-Darshan (translucent remix by The Grid)
-Darshana (with The Future sound of London)
-Darshan (the road to Graceland)

SYLVIAN/FRIPP: GOD'S MONKEY-A RETROSPECTIVE (1993)
Compilation (très peu détaillée) de morceaux où apparait le duo, comme des titres de " The first day ", " Gone to earth "...mais c'est pas sûr que cet album soit officiel !

SYLVIAN/FRIPP: DAMAGE (1994):
-Damage
-God's monkey
-Brightness falls
-Every colour you are
-Firepower
-Gone to earth
-20th century dreaming
-Wave
-Riverman
-Darshan
-Blinding light of Heaven
-The first day

David Sylvian: guit, keyb, voc
Robert Fripp: guit, Frippertronics
Trey Gunn: Chapman stick, voc
Mickael Brook: Infinite guitar
Pat Mastelotto: drums

NICOLA ALESINI/ PIER LUIGI ANDREONI: MARCO POLO (1995)
-Come morning
-Quinsai, la citta'del cielo
-Yangchow
-The golden way
-Sumatra
-M.Polo
-Il libro dell'incessante accordo con il cielo
-Maya
-Buchara
-Kubilay Khan
-Samarca
-The valley of Pamir

Nicola Alesini: sax, keyb, percu
Pier Luigi Andreoni: keyb, piano, percu
David Sylvian: voc
Alberto Andreoni: keyb
Harold Budd: piano
Fabio Capinni: guit
Roger Eno: voc, keyb
Damiano Puliti: cello
Arturo Stalteri: harmonium, bouzouki
David Torn: guit
Arlo Bigazzi: produc

Musique d'aventures quasi-romanesque dns le genre musique nouvelle italienne, cad melange curieux de world music et d'ambient/new age.

JAKKO WITH JANSEN, BARBIERI AND KARN: KINGDOM OF DUST (?)

JAKKO: MUSTARD, GAS AND ROSES (?)

JAKKO: ARE MY EARS ON WRONG ? (?)

JAKKO: CHEF OST (?)

JAKKO: THE RADIO PROGRAM (?)

JANSEN/ BARBIERI/ KARN: BEGINNING TO MELT (?)
Compil

JANSEN/ BARBIERI/ KARN:SEED (?)
Mini CD

JANSEN/ BARBIERI: STONE TO FLESH (?)

JANSEN/ BARBIERI: OTHER WORLDS IN A SMALL ROOM (?)

DAVID SYLVIAN: DEAD BEES ON A CAKE (1999)
Infos disponibles

DAVID SYLVIAN: APPROACHING SILENCE (2000)