David Sylvian: "Do You Know Me Now?" Quiz

Answer: Ghosts

"Ghosts" was originally a track on the album "Tin Drum", released in the UK and elsewhere in 1981, before its single release the subsequent year. Despite this era being considered the height of Japan's popularity, within a year the band had split up reportedly due to tensions within the band, which at the time of the album consisted of David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri.

According to David Sylvian, "Ghosts" was a "turning point", and itself a breakthrough in terms of him finding his own voice and led the way for his solo works.

"Now I find myself alone"

Answer: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

As well as composing the music for this, Ryuichi Sakamoto was also an actor within "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", playing Captain Yonoi. It was both his acting debut and a debut for having his compositions used within a film. The film title is word-for-word mentioned a few times during the film, which was a war film based upon the experiences of Laurens van der Post, telling of his experiences as a prisoner of war during the Second World War from the three connected autobiographical stories published as "The Seed and the Sower".

Sakamoto had originally wanted to collaborate on "Forbidden Colours" with David Bowie, a fellow actor in the film, but when he only wanted to be involved with the film as an actor rather than a singer, he asked Sylvian, who accepted.

"Forbidden Colours" was released on the official soundtrack album for the film although this vocal version didn't appear in the film itself; it was also released as a single, as the B side on the single "Red Guitar" by Sylvian, and as a bonus track on the album "Secrets of the Beehive", although this song was replaced when it got remastered in 2003.

Purportedly the title of this song, which underscores the turmoil felt by the characters, comes from the 1951 novel by Yukio Mishima (which was not translated into English until 1968).

Answer: Orpheus

This song comes from "Secrets of the Beehive", which was released on the 19th October 1987 in the US and Europe.

In Greek mythology, Orpheus is famous for his attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice from Hades using his musical talents; while the exact details of this can vary between re-tellings, this was not a successful endeavour. As a condition for rescuing her, he had to lead her out of the underworld without turning back to look at her, but as he travelled on and on he came to doubt himself, realising he could not hear her footsteps and with not far to go, he turned around to look at her and therefore failed in his quest.

Despite the title, the song is actually written from the perspective of Eurydice as she travels with Orpheus.

"The temptations to leave or to give up the ghost
I wrestle with an outlook on life
That shifts between darkness and shadowy light"

Answer: When the Poets Dreamed of Angels

This is another song from 1987's "Secrets of the Beehive", and lyrically is perhaps clearer about what is happening than in than the usual Sylvian fare, at least for the first half. The song begins with a woman who is being hurt and threatened by somebody she loves, and the lyrics contrast with the calm-sounding vocals as he quietly threatens her; but as the lyrics in the question establish, this is all behind closed doors and clearly not something that anybody else can compute.

The latter half of the song is very metaphorical, however:

"When the poets dreamed of Angels
What did they see?
The bishops and knights well placed to attack"

"Secrets of the Beehive" got as high as number 37 on the UK album charts.

Answer: Rain Tree Crow

This naming scheme was triple layered, as the album also featured a song called "Rain Tree Crow"! Only one song from this album went on to become a single, and it actually wasn't "Rain Tree Crow": it was "Blackwater", which only reached the height of number 62 on the UK charts in March 1991.

The decision not to revert to the name Japan was a deliberate choice. At one stage, when the project went over-budget, it was insisted that the name "Japan" should be used or the project would not be further financed: rather than backing down, Sylvian reportedly financed the rest himself. It was also stated by Sylvian that where Japan had primarily been focused more around his writing, that they endeavoured for Rain Tree Crow to be more of a collaborative effort in terms of the material.

Nine Horses was another name that Sylvian went by in collaboration with others later on (including Jansen), but not with the other members of Japan.

Answer: Dead Bees on a Cake

Sylvian actually had two albums referring to bees, between "Dead Bees on a Cake" and "Secrets of the Beehive".

This album was released in 1999, and secured its highest position in the UK charts immediately following its release, at number 31.

Djivan Gasparyan is also credited on "Darkest Dreaming" as, with permission, Sylvian used samples from "Mother of Mine". Gasparyan is an Armenian musician and he is known for his playing of the duduk, an Armenian instrument similar to an oboe.

"Darkest Dreaming" is notable also for being used in an episode of "CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)"; the episode is called "Lady Heather's Box" and it is season 3, episode 15, airing in February 2003 in the US.

This is one of a number of songs - another being "I Surrender" - which Sylvian originally wrote for his then wife, Ingrid Chavez, but later also released. Chavez collaborates on a number of tracks on "Dead Bees on a Cake", for instance "Krishna Blue" and "Café Europa". Chavez and Sylvian were to later divorce in 2003.

Answer: Monster

"Monster" was originally a manga written by Naoki Ursawa, sometimes referred to as "Japan's master of suspense". It had an almost panel-by-panel adaptation to an anime in 2004, and Sylvian's English lyrics add a lot to a show that is already quite international, featuring a Japanese doctor living in Germany, also spanning what was, at the time that the show is set, Czechoslovakia and exploring issues relating to immigration and prejudice at times. In the English broadcast version of the anime, "For the Love of Life" was replaced with a different song.

"For the Love of Life" is a very eerie sounding song, which fits very well with the feel of "Monster", with Sylvian's deep vocals over music that somehow that sounds both calm and yet very creepy and foreboding. Sylvian stated that it was the themes and moral dilemma at the core of the story that attracted him towards this project. The version that plays as the anime ending is cut down from the full version: interestingly, some of the missing lyrics in the broadcast version are perhaps some of the most important to one of the core themes in a story that likes to do lots of character studies of its protagonists and antagonists:

"And what of the children?
Surely they can't be blamed for our mistakes?"

Answer: And abandon their dreams

"Wonderful World" was released on the album "Snow Borne Sorrow" in 2005, under the name Nine Horses. Nine Horses consisted of David Sylvian, Steve Jansen (from his Japan days), and also Burnt Friedman. Despite this, as of the time of the release of "Snow Borne Sorrow", they had never been physically performing together as a three: Friedman's contributions were provided digitally, with Sylvian and Friedman not being in the same place together as they performed their parts.

Swedish singer-songwriter Stina Nordenstam also provided vocals on "Wonderful World", singing a part which gives a view on the unreliable perspectives of the male character and his constant flip-flopping from how wonderful things are to dreadful things on and off with all of his lines. Her part gives a clearer view on his particular character:

"He's sleeping his troubles away
He's finding it too hard to bear
I'm with him every step of the way
I weep for him, I weep for him now"

Stina Nordenstam is known for the song "Little Star", which was used in the film "Romeo + Juliet".

Answer: Emily Dickinson

This track is on the album "Manafon", which is in itself a poetic reference. The Welsh poet R. S. Thomas lived in a idyllic-sounding village in Wales called Manafon; Sylvian claimed that it had become a sort of metaphor for the imagination to him, which was fitting given the nature of the album.

"Manafon" was designed around the idea of free improvisation; starting with a blank canvas, Sylvian would go into the recording studio and improvise, and keep building on this improvisation. When it had been built, it was recorded. It was also designed that there was a variety of different musical collaborators; given they were all improvising, it made who was in a room, and with what, take on a significant amount of importance. The balance of this was not always correct, which could then result in people having to exit the room or potentially others having to enter. Each track did not necessarily have the same combination of people as the last.

Regarding Emily Dickinson, Sylvian used some of her poetry as lyrics and created a musical backdrop to them on the later album "Died in the Wool (Manafon Variations)" - the poem "I should not dare to leave my friend" became "I Should Not Dare (For N.O.)", and "There's a certain Slant of light" became "A Certain Slant of Light (For M.K.)". Thematically, Dickinson's poetry and Sylvian's lyrics are very similar, and this is truly noticeable with her words being used as lyrics and sung by Sylvian.

Answer: then

This song has a really interesting and unique genesis. An artist named Phil Collins, originally from Runcorn, England, but at the time working in Germany began a work on a collaborative project that consisted of setting up a free phone booth in 2013 in a shelter for helping the homeless in Cologne, Germany; he had previously worked selling "The Big Issue", a magazine for the homeless and was passionate about these people not being forgotten.

The phone booth could call anywhere, with no charge, on the proviso that people using them were aware that the conversations were recorded but anonymised (and thus devoid of any other context). The people using the phones were also aware what these would be used for: the contents of their conversation would be sent to a select group of musicians, whose job was to compose a song based upon whatever lines they had been given; this could involve directly quoting the text or just referring to it indirectly, but nonetheless using it as inspiration.

David Sylvian was one of these musicians, and "Do You Know Me Now?" is the song that he produced based upon the text that he was sent. All of the produced songs were released as an album named "my heart's in my hand, and my hand is pierced, and my hand's in the bag, and the bag is shut, and my heart is caught", this quote being from Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers".

Others who contributed to this project include Cologne Tape, Laetitia Sadier and PlanningToRock.