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DAVID SYLVIAN, "APPROACHING SILENCE"

Nearly everybody who'sfamiliar with Sylvian has an opinion on him - either he's too mindnumbingly nauseating and pretentious or he's an unrecognized genius.
He's kept a rather low profile over the last few years however,releasing a minimal amount of music as possible. Perhaps it's becauseof his long time ties to Virgin just aren't the same as when Japan wereplaying together in the early eighties. This disc is on the new label,Shakti, a subsidiary of Virgin which I'm guessing intends to marketmore obscure releases that just don't have the multi-platinum pressuresof full line Virgin releases. The disc itself is simply a collection ofsome installation recordings from 1990 and 1994. Three tracks on thedisc consist of a two minute piece, "Epiphany," sandwiched between two+30 minute ambient tunes, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" and "ApproachingSilence." The first two tracks were recorded in London for a multimediainstallation with Russel Mills while the last was recorded with RobertFripp in Minneapolis. Both installations took place in Japan andnothing is noted in the booklets what the themes nor intentions of theinstallations were. The music is pleasant, simple and subtle andprovides excellent background for studying or working. Fans of Stars ofthe Lid records might recognize similar work in modified guitars,effects and string sounds.

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