David Sylvian compilations across the years – Part 2

---

A Victim Of Stars (2CD digipak edition)

Winding on a decade from the end of Sylvian’s deal with Virgin, 2012 saw a new compilation to follow-on from those two compilations detailed in Part 1 of this post. This new compilation was ‘A Victim Of Stars’ and it gathered together a wide variety of material that spanned both Sylvian’s Virgin Records and Samadhi Sound eras, and encompassed not only solo material but stretched back a far as late period Japan, the Rain Tree crow reunion as well as many collaborations along the way.

What is/was unique to this compilation?

At the time of release, ‘What’s Your Gravity?’ was a new track exclusive to this compilation. It was subsequently released a year later in 2013 as one side of a 10″ vinyl single (which is impossibly rare and hard to find now) paired with ‘Do You Know Me Now?’. Other than that, it appears that all other tracks were previously released in one form or another beforehand.

---

Tracklisting:

Track:	Act:	Album:	Duration:
Disc 1:
Ghosts (Version 2000)	Japan	Everything and Nothing	3’47”
Bamboo Houses (12″ Version)	Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian	Bamboo Music / Bamboo Houses (single)	5’21”
Bamboo Music (12″ Version)	Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian	Bamboo Music / Bamboo Houses (single)	5’40”
Forbidden Colours (Version)	Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian	Red Guitar single B-side	5’58”
Red Guitar	David Sylvian	Brilliant Trees	5’09”
The Ink in the Well	David Sylvian	Brilliant Trees	4’29”
Pulling Punches	David Sylvian	Brilliant Trees	5’02”
Taking the Veil	David Sylvian	Gone to Earth	4’40”
Silver Moon	David Sylvian	Gone to Earth	6’19”
Let the Happiness In	David Sylvian	Secrets of the Beehive	5’37”
Orpheus	David Sylvian	Secrets of the Beehive	4’51”
Waterfront	David Sylvian	Secrets of the Beehive	3’36”
Pop Song	David Sylvian	Pop Song (single)	4’34”
Blackwater	Rain Tree Crow	Rain Tree Crow	4’22”
Every Colour You Are	Rain Tree Crow	Rain Tree Crow	4’46”
Heartbeat (Tainai Kaiki II – Returning To The Womb)	Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian featuring Ingrid Chavez	Heartbeat (single)	5’17”
Disc 2:
Jean the Birdman	David Sylvian and Robert Fripp	The First Day	4’16”
Alphabet Angel	David Sylvian	Dead Bees on a Cake	2’06”
I Surrender	David Sylvian	Dead Bees on a Cake	9:25″
Darkest Dreaming	David Sylvian	Dead Bees on a Cake	4’01”
A Fire in the Forest	David Sylvian	Blemish	4’41”
The Only Daughter	David Sylvian	Blemish	5’57”
Late Night Shopping	David Sylvian	Blemish	2’54”
Wonderful World	Nine Horses	Snow Borne Sorrow	6’02”
The Banality of Evil	Nine Horses	Snow Borne Sorrow	8’02”
Darkest Birds	Nine Horses	Snow Borne Sorrow	5’03”
Snow White in Appalachia	David Sylvian	Manafon	5’59”
Small Metal Gods (Died in the Wool Version)	David Sylvian	Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations	5’09”
I Should Not Dare (for N.O.)	David Sylvian	Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations	3’24”
Manafon	David Sylvian	Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations	4’05”
Wheres Your Gravity?	David Sylvian	Previously Unreleased (at the time)	5’20”

Disc one very much charts the more familiar and easy on the ear material from David Sylvian and is largely made up of his many singles of the 1980s. Of note, the versions of the tracks from the ‘Brilliant Trees’ album all appear to be the album versions and not the single edits/remixes. (The 7” single version of ‘Bamboo Music’ has yet to appear on CD, as far as I’m aware, though the 7” version of ‘Bamboo Houses’ was released on the ‘New Gold Dream’ compilation CD) have never appeared on CD?) Both sides of the 1982 collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamto appear in their original 12″ versions format – not the ‘Version 2000’ remix of ‘Bamboo Houses’, surprisingly perhaps (which had been on ‘Everything and Nothing’. There is also further Sakamoto collaborations to be found, not least in the 1984 ‘Brilliant Trees’ era re-recording of ‘Forbidden Colours’ that had previously been issues as a bonus track on some versions of the ‘Secrets of the Beehive’ CD album. (Note: On my copy of the CD, the first few notes are actually at the end of the preceding track, unfortunately.)

Disc two is where the much more, ahem, ‘difficult’ later solo material is gathered up – and inevitably it varies a great deal, kicking off with the rocky gallop of the Sylvian & Fripp single ‘Jean The Birdman’ and ranging all the way through a wide range of moods to finish up with the seductive, almost bluesy croon of ‘Where’s Your Gravity?’, a sweet ear treat by comparison to some of the ‘Manafon’ era sound pieces. Interestingly, it appear to be the versions from the ‘Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations’ album that are mostly preferred rather than the original takes. Along the way there is also the beautiful ‘I Should Not Dare (for N.O.)’ from the ‘Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations’ album, which flies in the face of any complaints of tuneless noise pieces that often seem be mentioned in same breath as ‘Manafon’.

Earlier in proceedings on disc two are a few selections from 1999’s ‘Dead Bees On A Cake’, almost verging on being viewed as an easy listening outing at the time – largely going with non-singles, so there’s no sign of ‘Godman’ – and again, like on disc one, no short single edit for ‘I Surrender’ either, its the full nine minute plus album version. The three tracks from ‘Blemish’ are the more familiar low-fi electronica pieces rather than the more abrasive, raw guitar-based works that many struggled with when ‘Blemish’ was first presented for release.

There is of course the Nine Horses material too, a sadly too short-lived collaboration with Sylvian’s brother Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman – and Jansen once again on the Rain Tree Crow pieces selected here.

All in all, its an interesting compilation, probably not as vital to the collection as ‘Everything and Nothing’ was in what exclusives it contains. Perhaps another puzzling element, despite the wide range of collaborations gathered together on here there is no place for the song that gives the album its name, ‘A Victim Of Stars’ from Hector Zazou’s ‘Sahara Blue’ album (though Sylvian did go under the nom-de-plume of Mr X on that…)