David Sylvian & Holger Czukay
David Sylvian and Holger Czukay redefine ambient music and invite listeners to rediscover treasures. They transport them to a world where the raw beauty of nature merges with spontaneous creativity. Their ethereal soundscapes resonate with echoes of the thawing Cold War and the beauty of abandoned instruments.
Grönland Records announce reissue of groundbreaking ambient records
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay
Plight & Premonition (1988)
and
Flux & Mutability (1989)
Release date: 22nd June 2018
Grönland Records is proud to announce the reissue of one of the hidden gems of ambient music. The album comes from two unique musicians whose paths originally crossed in the early eighties while working on Sylvian's debut solo album "Brilliant Trees". In 1986, David Sylvian - of British art-pop band Japan - and Holger Czukay - founding member and bassist of legendary German kosmiche band Can - reunited ostensibly so that Sylvian could record a vocal part for Czukay's upcoming album "Rome Remains Rome". However, when he arrived at Czukay's studio - a former cinema in Cologne - Sylvian began playing freely and improvising on instruments present in the studio itself. No sooner had Sylvian - on whatever instrument he was exerting himself on at the time - started to structurally define/refine the performance than Czukay stopped the recording he had been secretly making. Czukay had attempted to capture the process of creation without a musician's tendency toward refinement. This process, which stretched over two nights, produced the duo's first full-fledged collaboration: "Plight and Premonition"
As the album has been out of print for some time, the parallels between the original release 30 years ago and today are quite strong; at the time of recording, the Cold War was just winding down after a bitterly cold winter - but still very real. The names 'Plight & Premonition' and 'Flux & Mutability' themselves suggest instability. In Sylvian's words, the recordings seemed to touch on something: "A form of music that seemed to have been created during our absence by instruments left to the earth and the forests, resounding in the harsh winter weather."
The version of "Plight and Premonition" included here is a new mix by Sylvian from 2002. All recordings have been fully remastered. The packaging has been redesigned by Chris Bigg under the art direction of Sylvian and includes new, previously unpublished photography by Yuka Fujii and an extensive essay by David Toop.
Originally released separately, they are now packaged in a 2CD/2LP set.
