Brilliant Trees

Infobox Album
Name = Brilliant Trees
Type = Album
Artist = David Sylvian


Released = 1984
Recorded = 1983-1984
Genre = Rock
Length = 44:34
Label = Virgin
Producer = David Sylvian, Steve Nye
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dmdsylmjxpmb link]
Last album =
This album = "Brilliant Trees"
(1984)
Next album = ""
(1985)
Misc =Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = Album


Lower caption = 1991 edition with "Words with the Shaman"

"Brilliant Trees" is David Sylvian's first solo album, released in 1984. Produced by Steve Nye and David Sylvian, the album peaked at no.4 in the UK, the highest position of Sylvian's career to date. It also contained his biggest solo hit, "Red Guitar", a #17 hit on the UK Singles Chart. Additional musicians on this record included Danny Thompson on acoustic bass and Ryuichi Sakamoto on keyboards. Sylvian and Sakamoto had previously collaborated on the singles "Bamboo Houses" (1982) and "Forbidden Colours" (1983).

The record itself revealed a remarkable change of direction for Sylvian. A musical palette containing extracts of Jazz, Ambient and radio noise, to lyrics influenced directly from Sylvian's reading of Jean-Paul Sartre.

In 1991, the album was reissued as "Brilliant Trees / Words with the Shaman", containing all of the "Brilliant Trees" tracks plus the three parts from the 1985 12" single/cassette "Words with the Shaman", also included on the album "".

Track listing

Side A:
# "Pulling Punches" (David Sylvian) – 5:02
# "The Ink in the Well" (Sylvian) – 4:30
# "Nostalgia" (Sylvian) – 5:41
# "Red Guitar" (Sylvian) – 5:09

Side B:
# "Weathered Wall" (Sylvian, Jon Hassell) – 5:44
# "Backwaters" (Sylvian) – 4:52
# "Brilliant Trees" (Sylvian, Hassell) – 8:39

Personnel

* David Sylvian - lead vocals, guitar, piano (treated), tapes, synthesizer, percussion instruments
* Steve Jansen - drums, synthesizer, percussion
* Holger Czukay - french horn, voice, guitar
* Wayne Braithwaite - bass guitar tracks A1, A4
* Ronny Drayton - guitar tracks A1, A4
* Richard Barbieri - synthesizer track A1, B1
* Danny Thompson - double bass track A2
* Kenny Wheeler - flugelhorn tracks A2, A3
* Phil Palmer - guitar tracks A2, A3
* Steve Nye - synthesizer tracks A3, A4
* Ryuichi Sakamoto - synthesizer track A4, B1, B3
* Mark Isham - trumpet track A4
* Jon Hassell - trumpet B1, B3

Production

* Steve Nye - record producer for Klangfarben Productions, sound engineer, audio mixing A1, A3 to B1, B3
* P. Williams - sound engineer, mixing assistant mixer
* David Sylvian - producer for Klangfarben Productions, mixing assistant
* Nigel Walker - mixing tracks A1, B2
* Yuka Fujii - photography