Flux & Mutability

David Sylvian, Holger Czukay | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 23, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Venture / Caroline
• ASIN: B000000HSM
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,139 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Flux: A Big, Bright, Colourful World

2. Mutability (A New Beginning Is in the Offing)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yang, September 9, 2002

By 

spiral_mind (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flux & Mutability (Audio CD)

A warm, colorful and enchanting piece of work, Flux & Mutability is a complete contrast to its predecessor (Plight & Premonition). Where that album was chilly, forbidding and almost devoid of actual music, this one overflows with dreamy synth tones and pleasant atmospheres. It's a radiant ambience that still doesn't captivate all your attention, but creeps into your consciousness before you realize what's happened. Sylvian starts building some comfy clouds which are gradually added to as "Flux" progresses; some aimless stray notes here, some toned-down percussion there, some faint unintelligible voice snippets here, some breezy winds there. It suggests sitting on a porch some sunny spring day. The outside world makes its presence felt as it comes and goes, but never really intrudes.

The slightly longer "Mutability" consists only of David's keyboards and some airy barely-there flute, and it almost makes the first half seem busy and active by comparison. Again there's no real melody, but an easy-flowing atmosphere of warm and pleasant sounds. It meanders in the ether for a good 20 minutes, not really going anywhere but not intending to. Ambient fans should find a lot to enjoy, and Sylvian fans should just be warned that it's a far cry from Secrets of the Beehive. Excuse me while I drift off...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing collaborative work, part 2, April 4, 2000

By 

DAC Crowell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flux & Mutability (Audio CD)

This is the companion piece to Czukay and Sylvian's "Plight and Premonition". And here, the first work finds the addition of some jazz elements into the soundscaping, courtesy of Markus Stockhausen et al. Stockhausen _fils_ is most significant here, as these works share some elements germaine to his father's impressive body of work. But while Karlheinz Stockhausen tends to create pieces of avant-garde spikiness, these two pieces are warm, droning, slowly-spinning constellations of sounds and fragments that draw the listener in to either bathe in the wash or to explore the bits that drift by. The second piece here returns course back to the same seas navigated on "Plight...", which should be purchased in tandem with this release, if possible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fine art of evocation..., May 23, 2005

By 

B. J. C. White "in search of the lost chord" (Christchurch, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flux & Mutability (Audio CD)

...is on display here, as Sylvian and Czukay carry the listener on another aural journey of remarkable proportions. "Flux" is the musical equivalent of a still life - a sonic space where nothing much happens but everything moves. As other reviewers have quite rightly said, "Flux" evokes a summer's day, passersby and a bright hot sun that the listeners can see but need not venture out into, warm and comfortable as they are in the shade...
"Mutability" is simply remarkable, a gently susurrating helix of sounds - keyboard/guitar sounds that shimmer drift at glacier speed, fragments of flute that are hints of melody - that spiral up and out and spread into a wide surging that creates an eternity - in the somewhat surprising time of 21 minutes (it doesn't seem that long, whilst simultaneously seeming longer). This is aural mysticism at a very high level of expression - perfect for meditating or just chilling.