Customer Reviews

Gone to Earth

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If there was only one album that I could take to a deserted island, "Gone to Earth" would be it. In my opinion, this piece of atmospheric pop-chique is the best Sylvian ever did. So when the remaster was released, I went and got it right away.

There are some obvious bonusses to this particular release: For the first time since the long-deleted japanese version you get the full album on CD. And not only the four tracks that went missing on the single CD release are back, but also three very interesting new mixes of River Man, Gone to Earth, and Camp Fire-Coyote Country. If it had been my choice I would have put the new mixes at the end of the second disc, so that you could first enjoy the full length of the original album, but then again, a CD player can be programmed...

Since the MUSIC of the original release has been commented on often enough, I will concentrate on the SOUND of this remaster, to give an indication for all those audiophiles out there... Does it sound better? Quite a bit! The overall sound is deeper, wider and more dynamic. There is more 'space' too. The drums in Before the Bullfight (one of my favourite tracks when listening to new audio equipment) are thundering like they were recorded only yesterday. David's voice is more focussed, and the inner detail of the cymbals and other high-pitched sounds has increased by at least 25% without getting too bright. But what about that piano sound? In Laughter and Forgetting something weird has happened. On the original release the sound of the piano is not very bright, but straight. On this remaster it is brighter, but it sounds as if a high-rated chorus has been added.
A bit like in the old days, when you would play a cassette on a deck with a dirty pinch-roller.

Maybe this "effect" was actually added during the recording, and it is only now that it can be heard because of the remaster, but I doubt that. It almost gives reason to assume that the tape that was used for this remaster was not the original master, but some copy that has been lying around on some shelf for too long.

There is another downside too. Like the other remasters of Sylvians work, this one has that wretched Copy Control thing on it. And this introduces some serious problems. Playing it on my DVDplayer gives a lot of pops and clicks, my car-stereo has the same problems with it, and my computer will not play it at all.

Oh yes, there is a disclaimer in very small printing, and some yada-yada-ing about stealing a CD from a store.
Don't get me wrong. Large scale illegal copying WILL harm the music industry, so I'm not into that. But if the weapons against piracy will damage the sound or affect the way a disc plays on different equipment, it feels like another lost battle to me.
At this moment, there is NO copy protection that will NOT influence the sound of a compact disc.
So I'm left wondering what this remaster would have sounded like if the digital Copy Control data had not been embedded in the bits that make up the music signal.
And because of that I'm forced to extract one star of the possible five, and give this very essential remaster a score of just 4.

Having (almost accidentally!) loved and cherished this particular album since it came out, I think it is time for me to do my bit for this marvellous piece of music!

First of all, let me state that this was my first Sylvian album. I must confess though that back then, I bought Gone to Earth merely on a whim - just because the cover seemed strangely inviting. I did not have a slighest clue on what to expect of the music itself, when I lowered my not-so-hifi record player's stylus into the first grooves of what was to become a fixture in my all-time favourites for years to come. Well, it did initially sound a bit strange. (I blush to remember thinking: maybe I can still take this back to the shop and get my money back!) At that time, I was -to an extent- already familiar with the featured guitarist, Robert Fripp, of King Crimson fame, but this was very different, something like... oh well. Silver Moon seemed to be the only piece of music that was accessible and beautiful on the first go. It took a few listens to get used to the almost tribal and scarce drumming, the meandering atmospherics, Kenny Wheeler's trumpet soloing, and the second lp filled with nearly static instrumental pieces. But in the end I got the message.

And I'm still wondering what that message is, actually! However: once your appetite has been whetted, this album keeps you coming back for more.

Gone to Earth is now available in its entirety on cd, hooray with knobs on for that. But as for saying very much more about the actual musical contents, I'm afraid I'd mostly be preaching for the converted. I guess this is simply one of those albums that every fan has a very personal relationship with, and trying to share those experiences might just appear silly. And anyway - I do not know how (and why) to try and convert anyone to succumb to the charms of this music. So, a few words in general.

The earlier single-disc cd pressing omitted some of the atmospheric instrumental pieces, and it's good to have them back at last so that the album is "complete". There are a few bonus tracks, remixes and stuff, but personally I do not think very much of them to be honest. Enjoyable as they may be in their own right, for someone like me with a long history of listening to the original lp issue, they do not belong to this album. Still, this is no major complaint because it's easy enough to skip listening to them.

As an artistically inclined aside, the packaging is also quite lavish - however, nothing can beat the good old lp gatefold sleeve! The original lp issue had a peculiar inner gatefold design involving a slab of something that seemed like molten gold on a flowing, dark-blue background, sadly dropped from this reissue.

The remastered sound is maybe a tad stronger in presence and clearer than on the previous single-cd issue. But again, I do not give very much weight on this matter. It is the music itself that counts for me; I'm no sound engineer or hi-fi specialist. Maybe it is only a matter of personal taste. Curiously enough, I remember reading somewhere that Sylvian himself was uncomfortable with the final mix of "Wave", and it's always been my personal favourite on this album - I wouldn't have changed a single detailo in the arrangement! Well I guess there's a lesson to be learnt from this.

All in all: I can just say that Gone to Earth still sounds fantastic, but I do not know whether it's because of "the depth or the surface", so to speak. I managed to enjoy this album immensely, scratches and all, in it's lp format, and can just say that this beautiful pair of cd's is an essential part of any adventurous music lover's collection. I neither know nor care very much whether this album ever reaches a widely accepted classic status, given the distance of time; I hate to think so but probably this album will sink into obscurity and oblivion in the years to come. However, for you who have had the patience to wade through this review so far: if you like things that might take a bit of time but give immense rewards, Gone to Earth is VERY strongly recommended - alongside with Brilliant Trees and Secrets of the Beehive by the same artist.

It's so hard for me to write about this album. The songs here are so beautiful, so rapt with emotion in their lyrics and the playing, that describing them adequately with words is a hellish exercise. Sylvian, on "Gone to Earth", seems to reach inside himself to such great depths to draw up the works herein. I have seldom heard such work of such emotional power before or since. And the music itself compliments this, shifting atmospheres seamlessly from jazz to ambient, to avant-garde, to quiet rock, and all around, always perfectly setting and setting off Sylvian's lyrics. The moods evoked here are done to perfection, and the songs here are ones which are true landmarks, one which can and should last the test of time. So why only _four_ stars? Well...I _cannot_ give this edition of this album five. It's not the whole album. There are a number of instrumental, ambient tracks missing here, which were originally present on the vinyl and cassette (and a limited import 2 CD version, I think only released in Japan), and which have been excised here for the sake of fitting 'everything' on CD...which, of course, means that not everything is fitted on the CD. In a work of this scope and breadth, such an omission and compromising of the artist's intent and vision should be considered nigh-criminal! For that reason, I can't and won't give this album its full measure of kudos until this critical flaw is corrected, which one can hope Virgin will someday see fit to do. This deserves to be released en toto!

I was ecstatic to hear the entire album has been transferred to CD at last. I've long been a fan of the original vinyl and had refused to buy the previous CD issue due to some of my favorite tracks having been deleted for time. So I welcome this new edition with open arms. The first cut I played was the re-mix of Coyote Camp, which sounds richer, fuller and more eerie than on the original LP. Why this treasure was buried for time was beyond my comprehension. It was one of my favorites on the LP. I'll have to play the LP and CD back to back to notice little nuances about which I was reading on this site, regarding the piano sound on "Laughter and Forgetting", but it's a labor of love I'm looking forward to. God bless Virgin for finally doing the right thing.

I was delighted to hear that "Gone to Earth" had finally been issued on CD in it's full form. My vinyl copy has long since been loaned out and not returned, and my original CD has been abused to the point where it is starting to cause probelems. However, my new problem is this. My last audio CD player died a year ago. I have computers in my studio and office, and a DVD player in my living room. However, apparently this disk will play on none of them! Quite frankly, copying of David Sylvian albums doesn't strike me as a likley problem or significant source of lost revenue. However at least one sale is lost right now because none of my equipment will play the thing!

Note: re: the previous review: "Laughter and Forgetting" is probably my favorite track, and I often play it as a reference befoe mixing on unfamiliar monitors. However, on several good speakers (primarily Genelecs) there is something ODD about the piano on the original CD also; Im not sure if its actually a sampled grand or a real one with some compressors pulling up the decay on the notes, but after the initial attack, the is someting strange (a slight "phasing" or perhaps a "looping" anomoly)about the sustain on the instrument...

If you have something that will play it.... Five stars for content. Probably Sylvian's best Album.

When I was 18 (a few years ago now), the man I was seeing put on this album and played "Wave" for me, singing along. When he got to the end and sang those last heartrending lines: "I'd tear my very soul to make you mine," I started to cry, and I've been in love with David Sylvian ever since. This album will at moments uplift you (Laughter and Forgetting), then shatter you (Silver Moon), frighten you with its imagery (Gone to Earth), and make you pine for that long-ago love (Wave). Listen to it with someone you love, and don't forget to sing that last line...

In 1985, David Sylvian entered the studio for what was then his most ambitious project-- a double album, conceived as having one vocal LP and one instrumental LP. A chance, as it were, to continue all of the work he'd done in the past. The resulting album, "Gone to Earth", was a distinct improvement over both his previous instrumental efforts ("Alchemy-- An Index of Possibilites") and vocal efforts ("Brilliant Trees").

Assembling a series of musicians including former Japan drummer Steve Jansen and keyboardist Richard Barbieri, guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and saxaphonist Mel Collins, sylvian constructed two albums, each of which I'll tackle separately.

One the vocal disc, Sylvian takes the moody sound he worked with on his previous LP and drags it deep into a jazz infused vein-- supported generously by a number of players with a jazz pedigree, he can evoke the mood well. Check the gentle swing of passionate love song "Wave" (with some stunning leads from Robert Fripp), piano ballad "Laughter and Forgetting" (which as a trumpet player I can safely say I'm in awe of Wheeler's solo) or the lurching "River Man". Throughout the disc, Sylvian's voice has developed a depth and range of emotion that allows him to carry pieces like "Before the Bullfight" into a mournful state without ever being pathetic. In the midst of all this, we get at least one stunning Japanesque piece ("Taking the Veil") and one piece composed as a duet between guitarist Robert Fripp's fractured playing and Sylvian's vocal (the title track "Gone to Earth", first forerunner into the direction Sylvian would pursue over a decade later on "Blemish"). In fact, the only weakness for me is "Silver Moon", a somewhat overly bright jazz-pop song that doesn't the record at all.

The instrumental disc is the full realization of where Sylvian had been trying to go with the instrumental compositions he'd been working over the past several years, from the minimalist work on Japan's albums (as early as "The Tenant" on "Obscure Alternatives") to the previous year's "The Stigma of Childhood (Kin)". The best pieces feature a hazy soundscape from Sylvian over which Bill Nelson ("The Healing Place", "Answered Prayers"), "B.J. Cole ("Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples") or Robert Fripp ("Camp Fire: Coyote Country", "Upon this Earth") provide a solo, butr as a rule, the material is of stunning beauty, in particular "Camp Fire: Coyote Country", where Fripp plays one of the best solos of his career, bar none.

This reissue is the first time the entire recording has been released on CD, having had several tracks hacked off to squeeze it onto one CD, and features pristine remastered sound that really helps bring out the best of the recording. The material is augmented by three relatively unessential remixes (all things being even, the album tracks stand well enough on their own). All of this is housed in a quite lovely double digipack. All in all, a great package for a great album. Not quite as good as "Secrets of the Beehive", but a great work in it's own right. Highly recommended.

Haunting, romantic, and ultimately self-indulgent, David Sylvian's Gone To Earth is two albums in one. The first is a collection of gossamer adult pop with jazz, world beat, and atonal influences. Sylvian's world-weary voice quavers with emotion, and the tone of the disc's first half suggests Bryan Ferry doing some serious dream-journaling. Standouts are the brief but lulling "Laughter and Forgetting," the ethereal "Before the Bullfight," and "Silver Moon."

After that, things get a bit murkier with a set of nondescript instrumentals that seem ill-placed after 25 minutes of Sylvian's urbane vocal mysticism. If you're a fan of Eno's "Music for Airports," this section should appeal to you greatly. Otherwise, it will put you to sleep. If ambience is your thing, however (and, really, why would you be considering buying a David Sylvian CD if it wasn't?), this is a true classic.

Before I go any further, had "Secrets of the Beehive" not been the album following this one, I'd be talking about how this is a timeless masterpiece, but being the record before what in my assessment may be the greatest vocal album ever recorded is a difficult place in history. Nonetheless, "Gone to Earth" is a superb record in its own right-- a double album in its initial release, the first disc are all vocal tracks, the second instrumental. David Sylvian, at the peak of his pop songwriting powers, assembled a cast of superb musicians-- guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson, reedman Mel Collins (King Crimson), trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and fellow Japan alum and Sylvian's brother, drummer Steve Jansen-- to help realize this ambitious project. I'll approach the discs one at a time.

The vocal disc starts off immediately showing the influence of Fripp on the material-- a collaboration that would yield plenty of fruits of Sylvian. "Taking the Veil" and its arpeggio guitar lines could be straight out of the League of Gentlemen (Sylvian turns Fripp's crafty guitar into a framework for a great, mysterious pop song) but the title track is the gem of this collaboration-- Fripp performs a fractured guitar line of such rampant unpredictability as to remind one of his solo on "Baby's on Fire" but Sylvian sings above it in gentle yet frantic tones. The contrast between the two in the minimally arranged piece (guitar and vocals only) is superb.

But lushness and balladry is where Sylvian would head after this and that's where he excels here-- the gentle "Laughter and Forgetting" proves a fine feature for Sylvian's smoky baritone and speaking as a lifelong trumpet player, Kenny Wheeler's solo is a thing to behold, it knocks me over every time. Also of note is "Wave"-- an extended work that really sets the stage for "Secrets of the Beehive" in its lushness, albeit with an optimism not to be found on 'Beehive' and a stunning, emotive solo from Fripp.

The second disc is all ambient selections-- usually repetitive backings with melodies over the top. All of it is quite listenable and much of it stands out, most notably opener "The Healing Place", with a gentle insistence and the stunning "Camp Fire: Coyote Country", another feature for Fripp where his playing again meets a level of enormous sensitivity and power. Unlike some other ambient works by Sylvian, I think the concerted effort towards briefer tracks pays dividends here-- everything has something to say and does so before it runs the risk of drifting one's interest.

All of this has been remastered with superb sound (albeit a bit aggressive) and a handful of bonus tracks, in this case pretty much all superfluous remixes. Nonetheless, the album material is so strong that "Gone to Earth" is essential listening in the collection of anyone with adventurous tastes. Highly recommended.

I'm mostly a David Sylvian fan (didn't care as much for Blemish and some other things). For me Gone to Earth and Secrets of the Beehive are neck in neck as his best albums.

Gone to Earth is simply luminous with a golden atmosphere like gentle sunshine on fields of golden apple trees or ripe wheat. It's organic and mystical. It's easy to listen to, can be hypnotic, but has many intricacies if you care to listen carefully, closely, and repeatedly. Though I agree that the song "Gone to Earth" doesn't quite fit with its jangly and dischordant sound, the rest of the album both soothes and invigorates. The album is certainly a major accomplishment that has largely gone unrecognized.

It's difficult to classify. What do you call this? Jazz? Pop? Avant garde? New Age? Ambient? It has elements that superficially resemble these genres but fit none of them. I'd say in a way it's almost an album of metaphysical pop/jazz love songs (though the second disc in the two disk version is certainly ambient).

Sylvian manages to take a diverse set of musicians and make them more accessible. For example, Fripp can sometimes be too cerebral/mechanical with his frippertronics, some others may be such jazz musicians that much of the population just doesn't relate. He take these elements and puts them successfully in a complex love song/pop framework that works well and is less harsh and "pure" than some of the contributors' original styles.

It's a fantastic album. You might not listen to it every day, but if you understand introspection and the mystical elements in any way, you will come to love this album after a few listenings.