David Sylvian & Holger Czukay “Plight & Premonition / Flux & Mutibility”

2018

Grönland Records CDGRON193
Grönland Records LPGRON193

Disc one
Plight (the spiralling of winter ghosts)
Premonition (giant empty iron vessel)

Disc two
Flux (a big, bright, colourful world)
Mutability (a new beginning is in the offing)


Grönland Records reissue by two unique musicians whose paths originally crossed in the early-eighties while working on Sylvian’s debut solo album, Brilliant Trees. In 1986, David Sylvian and Holger Czukay - founding member and bassist in legendary German Kosmiche band Can - were ostensibly reconvening for Sylvian to record a vocal for Czukay's forthcoming album Rome Remains Rome. But on arriving at Czukay's studio - a former cinema in Köln - Sylvian began playing freeform, improvising on readily available instruments located in the studio itself. No sooner had Sylvian, on whatever instrument he’d been applying himself, start to structurally define/refine the performance than Czukay would stop the recording he’d surreptitiously been making. Czukay had attempted to capture the process of creation without a musician's inclination for refinement. This process, drawn out over two nights, gave birth to the duos first, full-fledged, collaboration, Plight and Premonition.

Having been out of print for some time, the parallels between the original release 30 years ago and 2018 are quite stark; at the time of recording the Cold War was lifting - but still very real - after a bitter winter. The names Plight & Premonition and Flux & Mutability themselves hint at an instability. In Sylvian's words, the sessions seemed to touch on something: “A form of music that seemed to have been created while we were absent by instruments abandoned to the earth and the woods, sounded by the coarse winter elements.”

The version of Plight & Premonition included here was a remix by Sylvian from 2002. All the recordings were fully remastered. The packaging redesigned by Chris Bigg, art direction by Sylvian with new, previously unseen, photographs by Yuka Fujii, accompanied by an extensive essay by David Toop.

Originally released separately, they were packaged in a 2CD / 2LP set.

Full details for this release may be read at www.groenland.com




Click here for the David Sylvian Discography index.







Discography: Albums

Nine Horses "Snow Borne Sorrow" Expanded Edition
David Sylvian “samadhisound 2003–2014 – Do You Know Me Now?”
Stephan Mathieu / David Sylvian “Wandermüde” (2023 Edition)
David Sylvian “Sleepwalkers” (2022 Edition)
David Sylvian “Secrets of The Beehive” (2019 Vinyl Edition)
David Sylvian “Gone To Earth” (2019 Vinyl Edition)
David Sylvian “Alchemy – An Index of Possibilities” (2019 Vinyl Edition)
David Sylvian “Brilliant Trees” (2019 Vinyl Edition)
David Sylvian “Dead Bees On A Cake” (2018 Standard Edition)
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay “Plight & Premonition / Flux & Mutibility”
David Sylvian “Dead Bees On A Cake” (Record Store Day 2018 Edition)
Rhodri Davies / David Sylvian / Mark Wastell “There Is No Love”
David Sylvian “there’s a light that enters houses with no other house in sight”
"Uncommon Deities"
David Sylvian - "A Victim of Stars 1982-2012"
David Sylvian - "Died in the Wool"
David Sylvian - "Sleepwalkers"
David Sylvian - "Manafon"
David Sylvian - "When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima"
Nine Horses - "Snow Borne Sorrow"
David Sylvian - "The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter"
David Sylvian - "Blemish"
David Sylvian - "Camphor"
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp - "Damage" (Reissue)
David Sylvian - "Everything & Nothing"
David Sylvian - "Approaching Silence"
David Sylvian - "Dead Bees on a Cake"
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp - "Damage"
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp - "The First Day"
Rain Tree Crow - "Rain Tree Crow"
David Sylvian - "Weatherbox"
David Sylvian + Holger Czukay - "Flux & Mutability"
David Sylvian + Holger Czukay - "Plight & Premonition"
David Sylvian - "Secrets of the Beehive"
David Sylvian - "Gone to Earth"
David Sylvian - "Alchemy - An Index Of Possibilities"
David Sylvian - "Brilliant Trees"