Japan
Oil On Canvas

It is rare for talented groups to conclude their collaboration so excellently. Japan is an example; in 1983, their first and only "live" album was released amid their already-announced separation, which would lead them to pursue solo careers. In a troubled dream, Oil On Canvas will transform into the flapping of wings ready to extract the best elements from Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum. In 1974, David Sylvian (David Batt) with his brother Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, and Mick Karn, formed Japan. After years of hard work, their first raw album was released in 1978. Meanwhile, Sylvian spent a lot of time in Japan where he met Sakamoto and a love for oriental music full of refinement and inner search was born, reaching full maturity in 1984 and inevitably a turning point with the last release "Exorcising Ghosts." But Sylvian would go on to pursue an extraordinary solitary path, already gifting us in 1984 with "Brilliant Trees."

I find Oil On Canvas to be tangible proof of originality because it managed to highlight those previously hidden qualities, an alchemy where the fifteen colored tracks glide like oil on a hemp canvas, and Sylvian's live voice is perfect and graceful as a breath of wind. Keyboards, flutes, bass, saxophone, violins, cellos, and percussion are a suggestive blend of electronic and acoustic instrumental beats, an undoubtedly perfect amalgam of songs as transparent as the water of an uncontaminated spring. Omnipresent are the echoes of China and Japan in a Western panorama.

"Oil On Canvas" (unreleased track) the piano notes for 1.25 seconds glide into the deepest utopia - "Sons Of Pioneers" in the foreground percussions beat on any instrument that attempts to intrude, while the sustained voice openly manifests as in a popular meeting - "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" lively and supported instruments in a guttural and creative chant - "Swing" a fantastic track, experimental sound and vocalization research that draws a line of personal identity, the sax is amazing - "Cantonese Boy" Japanese instrumental echoes that fascinate and float in a porcelain world - "Vision Of China" Arab-Chinese dance, stunning final Afro-Oriental percussions never-heard rhythm - "Ghosts" extraordinarily haunting, insubstantial, spectral synthesizers and a solitary and stealthy sax... when I think I've won over everything having knocked down any door for an eternal life, the ghosts of my life come back even more haunting, blowing into my troubled heart - "Voices Raised In Welcome, Hands Held In Prayer" (unreleased track) in a round, round circle children hold hands, pronouncing a secret prayer - "Nightporter" a piece of incalculable refinement and elegance, painful and combative dance but always composed - "Still Life In Mobile Homes" a rich and varied verse with a chorus with evocative Japanese choruses and solos by Yuka Fujii, accompanied by flutes, guitar, and percussion – "Methods Of Dance" what to say about this track, candid, sophisticated, elegant, unique - "Quiet Life" the initial rhythm reminds me of a famous band, guess which one… - "The Art Of Parties" shrill instruments and voices - "Canton" instrumental track, hypnotic Chinese melodies – "Temple Of Dawn" (unreleased track) 1.45 seconds of sporadic concluding beats.

A musical masterpiece of rare beauty, with the ability to remain eternally framed in the history of Music