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Rating:
David Sylvian has created a dark and fascinating work born from reflection on the Welsh poet R.S. Thomas, completely unknown in Italy, but considered by Ted Hughes as one of the most important English-language poets of the post-war period.
"Manafon" relies on the power of the voice, chanted and intoned to the extreme, and on a few electronic echoes... distant loops, minimalist effects, a double bass that plays a few notes and then falls silent.
The lyrics mainly speak of distance, absence, loss. It is a record that should be savored and fully absorbed in solitude, to appreciate every little nuance, every drop of compositional wisdom.
Perhaps only Scott Walker on "The Drift" had dared so much in the realm of "popular" music.
There is very little pop here, as everything is enclosed in a creative isolationism designed to induce unease, but also catharsis in the listener.
The album travels along the line of a tension that, obviously, will never explode.
Recommended.
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