DOWN MEMORY LANE

DAVID SYLVIAN
"Gone To Earth"

The first time i read about this album was on an italian "alternative" music magazine back in 1986, till then all i knew about Sylvian was a video of "Red Guitar" and that's about it, i was 17 years old so i could be forgiven for not knowing his previous legendary band Japan and the beautiful first solo album (that i later rediscovered) "Brilliant Trees".
Even if "Brilliant Trees" and the third album "Secrets of the Beehive" are fantastic records, this (his second release) for me is special, from the graphic of the sleeve of the gatefold double album, the "fat" box case double cd to the overall sound of these amazing songs, "Gone To Earth" is a personal favorite, one of those records that i never get tired of.
When "Taking The Veil" kicks in with a clean, mid-tempo drums, a creamy bass guitar and luminous electric guitar chords i always feel a shiver down my spine, still trying to figure out how Sylvian managed to have those beautiful synth sounds that have a feeling of a long time gone memory, sort of what you will hear in a dream. And a dream is what "Laughter & Forgetting" sounds like, a piano, a magnificent trumpet and lyrics inspired by Milan Kundera, the song melts into "Before The Bullfight", an epic 9 minutes masterpiece (i'm usually not fond of long song, usually the plot gets lost but not here...) that leaves me speechless everytime i hear it, it's a feast of perfection from Bill Nelson acoustic guitar to the electric one of Robert Fripp, is simply grand, a wave of emotions crashing on you with such force and beauty that when the song is done you'll never look at the room where it's been played in the same way. The last song of the first of the two records (or cds) is "Silver Moon" (that was also released as a single), a ballad with the most romantic lyrics of the album, a beautiful song with a mesmerizing saxophone played by Mel Collins.
The second disc is a collection of ten instrumentals that never bore like a lot of music without words unfortunately do, the tracks are melodic, serene, cinematic pieces of piano, acoustic guitar, "frippertronics" (Robert Fripp's guitar treated digitally) and again, like everyhing else on "Gone To Earth" absolutely memorable.
Not your typical "pop" record then but, thank God, music for the soul, music that sneaks in slowly but stays with you forever. Like the title of a song in here, when you're done listening to this you'll feel like you have reached "The Healing Place".
I will never leave.