Two of David Sylvian’s works are getting a vinyl release for the very first time. The Good Son Vs The Only Daughter – The Blemish Remixes and Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations will be issued on vinyl in January 2025. Initially released in 2005 and 2011, respectively, the albums previously had only been physically released on CD. Both LPs are available for preorder now.
The Good Son Vs The Only Daughter – The Blemish Remixes is a remix album for Sylvian’s 2003 album, Blemish. Burnt Friedman, Sweet Billy, Pilgrim, Ryoji Ikeda, Readymade FC, Yoshihiro Hanno, Tatsuhiko Asano, Akira Rabelais, Jan Bang, and Erik Honoré all contribute remixes to the companion album, which also includes some rerecordings and different instrumentation for the original songs. In an interview with Pitchfork in 2005, Sylvian expressed a desire to create a “global” sound with the remix album, explaining, “It’s sort of stretched between the States, Europe, and Japan… what we’re listening to, what we’re watching, what we’re reading– it can have very little to do with one’s immediate cultural environment.”
Died in the Wool – Manafon Variations, meanwhile, accompanies Sylvian’s 2009 album Manafon. Died In The Wool has reworked versions from composer Dai Fujikura. Six songs from the original album are present here, along with an 18-minute stereo mix of “When We Return You Won’t Recognise Us,” a semi-improvised art piece performed and recorded at the 2008-09 Biennial of Canaries. Reflecting on it in 2011, Sylvian explained that it took “a couple of decades, perhaps” for him to get to a place of comfort improvising. “What drew me to it were the freedoms it potentially offered me as a composer,” he explained. He also opened up about some of his reasoning for remixing two albums that were already very well received. “Because the pieces lent themselves to reinterpretation,” the musician shared. “I also used the remixes as a means of testing the water for potential future collaborators.” John Butcher, Arve Henriksen, Günter Müller, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Eddie Prevost all appear on Died In The Wool.
Order The Good Son vs The Only Daughter (The Blemish Remixes) and Died In The Wool (Manafon Variations) on vinyl now.
