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Rating:
Second work of the former dandy of Japan. If the first, "Brilliant Trees", though being a grandiose debut work, revealed various disorganizations in the choice of pieces (echoes of the past Japan contrasted with purely intimate sounds, or unexpected acoustic ballads), with "Gone To Earth" our artist, after extensive reflection and maturity, assembles excellent and more cohesive songs, wisely gathering some of his most influential and skilled "friends": Bob Fripp at the peak of his form, his brother Steve Jansen on drums, Kenny Wheeler, the not forgotten Richard Barbieri on keyboards, and other session musicians of cultured backgrounds. It results in a masterpiece, at the very least well-thought-out. Clearly ambient-inspired, the first side collects songs (if they can be synthesized as such), while the second features thematic instrumentals.
Originally, the album was supposed to be a collection of ambient pieces, but, I don't remember who, someone convinced Sylvian to... sing on it. The method is not usually the most orthodox, but the result, my dear ones, leaves you astonished.
It begins with "Taking The Veil," with a great Phil Palmer crafting on acoustic guitar supported by Jansen, immense and Teutonic. A down-tempo that enchants, an opening onto Sylvian's new sound universe.
Other gems: "Before the Bullfight," complex and enveloping, wave, hypnotic and lyrical, with Fripp on guitar synth at stratospheric levels. The album then offers on side 2 instrumental tracks with the same tone. The entire mood of the album refers to magmatic, ancestral sounds, hypnotic rhythms and powerful sounds, "spaced" guitars, a dazzling melodic lyricism... a "rich," powerful work on which Sylvian crafts some of his most suitable and touching melodies.
A sonic fresco worthy of the best sunsets of our lives.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
03 Before the Bullfight (09:45)
I hear your voice
Way down inside
A whispering sea
Of towering trees
But no reply
A silence so rare
And more than I can stand
Sweeps like a flood
Through life's flesh and blood
And steals away with it's heart
If I'm losing you
Then there's nothing more that I can say
The fighting is on
And battles are won
Or thrown away
But if I could live
Safe and sound
In God given fields
Or mountains of steel
Then here I'd stay
Till you'd gone
Guilty of stealing
Every thought I own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Every word's sunk in deep
Like the blades of a knife through my heart
But my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
As time's come to show
I'm told nothing more than I should know
A ship on the sea that threatens to leave
But never goes
This island of blue
Where life clings to your hands
Like water and sand
Will loose it's way
When you're gone
When all's forgiven
Still every fault's my own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Say a prayer for my release
When every hope in the world is asleep
And my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
08 The Healing Place (05:35)
(Voice of Joseph Beuys)
That has to be the age of overcome
The systems which are on the ceiling
Which are on the run to destroy
Human kind's nation
Human kind's inwardness
Human kind's ability
What for me is a true capital
And which is a side effect
Last not least destroys the nature and us
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