Name: 【弾いてみた】Blue of noon / David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto by NikHarnoncourt in David Sylvian
Duration: 5 min 44 s
Description: いまでもこの曲を愛奏している人は、世界中で私以外いない、とか不遜なことを言ってもいいですか（笑）。／使用楽器：Roland soniccell

always a key to my youth, sunsets till the dawn at the drawing board...

David was about 25 when he wrote this-such depth and talent!

Impressive cover version. Really hard to replicate Steve's playing.

David Sylvian

Mulatu Of Ethiopia

Kulunmanqueleshi (Mono Master)

Firestations – Many White Horses

'Many White Horses' is a collection of sea-soaked acoustic songs and instrumentals, interwoven with field recordings and lyrics drawn from the immediate surroundings of a sailing expedition, all brought together with warm, textured production. It marks Mike Cranny’s first solo endeavour, playing a variety of instruments and self-producing, albeit one enriched by Laura Copsey’s contributions on flugelhorn, flute and vocals.

The album was conceived and largely written at the beginning of August 2024 on a sailing yacht (Sail Britain’s “Merlin”) in the Inner Hebrides. This was the location for a week-long art residency with seven fellow artist-explorers all keen to capture something of the essence of being at sea and viewing the land from the sea. The voyage, through high winds and waves, took in the mysterious Isle of Rum and the coastline around Arisaig, before Mike and Laura continued the journey for a further week; travelling around the Ardnamurchan peninsula, across the Isles of Mull and Ulva to end up off-grid on the remote Isle of Gometra. 

While the music, with its focus on quietly hypnotic, hushed acoustic instrumentation, may at first appear something of a departure from the last five-piece band Firestations album ‘Thick Terrain’, it remains closely related and recognisable by Mike’s song writing style. It also occupies a similar space to the ‘Sunken Versions’ – quieter and slower songs (featuring on the ‘Automatic Tendencies’ EP series in particular) that focus on the more meditative, stripped back side of the band.

The title track ‘Many White Horses’ was the first song to be written, making use of an aging sea-warped boat guitar that Mike discovered could only be played in an open tuning, with a capo higher up the fret board. Mike says: “The limitations of this guitar proved to be a gateway to other songs – the chord progressions and melodies had to be simple to avoid tuning nightmares, and where I might have ordinarily decided that a song was too straightforward, on the boat I didn’t have a choice but to persevere with simple song ideas. It turns out that limitations can be liberating”. The first single from the album ‘A Weight Starts To Lift’ was written a bit later and shows Mike exploring the possibilities of the open tuning “maybe the trickiest fingerpicking I’ve ever attempted”. 

The communal living conditions on the boat and the camaraderie developed through the everyday routine, and in other artist’s processes, made for a fertile environment. Laura, as expedition leader, provided a series of creative prompts, shaped by archipelago poetics. Moments and provocations that filtered into lyrics and rhythms included a collaboration with a square meter of earth, seeking out an audience on a micro scale, and reading laminated sheets of poetry in the sea. Field recordings and found instruments also give the compositions a strong sense of place and carry the listener across rough seas and onto remote islands.



Biography

Firestations (Lost Map Records) span genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity. Bandmembers are Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson (aka Bit Cloudy), Tom Hargreaves and Neil Walsh.

Firestations - A Weight Starts To Lift

Here’s my arrangement of Billy Joel’s classic song “She’s Always a Woman to Me”.  


Arrangement Copyright Dan Swanson 2025

She's Alway a Woman to Me (cover)

Unauthorised remix of David Sylvians 'Answered Prayers' from the Gone to Earth album (1986).
Created with Ableton Live in the spring of 2010. Instruments used: Fender acoustic bassguitar and Novation bassstation.

Listen to the original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1snf4jTI8

Although I have enjoyed the music of Japan and David Sylvian since the mid eighties, I only heard 'Gone to Earth' for the first time in December 2009. Initially I thought it was a bit old and not relevant anymore, but soon it touched me and I played it a lot. Because of its beautifull sound 'Answered Payers' became one of my favorites. Later I felt that I could create a more earthly context for it. So I added a bassline and percussion and played some guitar on top of that. All parts were recorded around the first minute of the original. I enjoyed doing this remix and I'm happy with the result.

David Sylvian - 'Answered Prayers' (Farbeak remix)

いまでもこの曲を愛奏している人は、世界中で私以外いない、とか不遜なことを言ってもいいですか（笑）。／使用楽器：Roland soniccell

【弾いてみた】Blue of noon / David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto

Purchase this cassette at Seil Records: https://bit.ly/seil-friends

How We Remember
June 8, 2018

Live performance recorded to 2-track and mastered by SALZ Mastering for Seil Records.

Last winter Boris from Seil Records (you know, Jogging House) and I spoke about making a compilation cassette featuring a bunch of our internet modular synth friends. I suggested a few of my besties and now, one year later, it's out. And it's a milestone for Lightbath, actually, because this piece is the first Lightbath track to appear on cassette.

Detailed patch notes archive available through Patreon rewards: https://patreon.com/lightbath

Watch on YouTube → https://youtu.be/r1qaFk8QOmY
Drool on ModularGrid → https://bit.ly/2E0HZxd

Friends: An Ambient Compilation

How We Remember

YouTube

Einstürzende Neubauten - Total Eclipse Of The Sun

Just listened to Radio One's Essential Mix Selection from The Brilliant Photek, so def worth  checking out his remix of Karin Park's Tiger Dreams
Original is Taken from the Album Highwire Poetry, Produced By C Berg (Fever Ray, Little Dragon)

other remixers on the project inc Maya Jane Coles Nocturnal Sunshine
Dan Le Sac, Ladytron, Hannah Wants, Don Diablo Funtcase, D1 and more

Karin Park Tiger Dreams Photek Remix

David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees (Live)

David Sylvian Ride

Acoustic demo track exclusive on the CD "FANTASTIC AND SPECTACULAR" enclosed with the July/August 2009 music issue of The Believer magazine (US).

【弾いてみた】Blue of noon / David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto

NikHarnoncourt

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