nessus@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Doug Alan) (08/26/86)
Picked up a fine 12" called "Bamboo Houses"; it dates to 1982, and is a
French Virgin release. I'm not up on the exact chronology, but it must be
post-Japan, and is pre-"Brilliant Trees". It's co-produced by Steve Nye.
Did Sylvian do anything else with Sakamoto?
The two cuts are "Bamboo Houses" and "Bamboo Music"; they're mostly
synth instrumentals, with a few sung lyrics by Sylvian and muttered things
by Sakamoto. (The usual gaijin question: anyone know the translation?)
Rob
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Jimmy Carter? Oh, yeah -- he's the one who made me register for the draft...
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Nessus@Eddie.MIT.EDU
{allegra,seismo,decvax!genrad}!mit-eddie!nessus
MIT, E40-358a, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 253-0147IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (08/28/86)
About "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music": Your guess about the chronology was perfectly correct, Robert. The two tracks were recorded over a six-month period in London by David, after he had written and recorded an early version of them with Riu. Sylvian expressed some trepidation that Sakamoto might not even recognize the tracks in their final form, since all of the later additions -- notably Steve Jansen's percussion tracks -- were done after Sakamoto had gone back to Japan. Incidentally, the early pressings of both seven- and twelve-inch versions had the labels mixed up, with the titles thus applied to the wrong tracks. This may have been changed since then. Yes, Sylvian has made a couple of other recordings with Sakamoto. Their first collaboration was the last track from the Gentlemen Take Polaroids LP, "Taking Islands in Africa". After this came "Bamboo Music/Bamboo Houses". Then the single "Forbidden Colours", which was, essentially, the instrumental theme from the movie "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (which Sakamoto scored and starred in), to which Sylvian added a vocal track. IED has never been able to ascertain whether Sylvian conceived the melody line for the vocal, or simply gave that line lyrics. Certainly the melody does not appear in either of the instrumental versions of the track. Sylvian re-recorded "Forbidden Colours" during the Brilliant Trees sessions, and released it as a b-side to "Red Guitar". In addition, Sakamoto played on the Brilliant Trees LP, and produced a track track from Akiko Yano's (Sakamoto's wife's) LP From Japan to Japan (?). That track is a duet she did with Sylvian called "Good Night", written by Yano.
ins_aset@jhunix.UUCP (08/28/86)
>From: Robert Stanzel <apollo!rps> >Subject: Sylvian/Sakamoto >Picked up a fine 12" called "Bamboo Houses"; it dates to 1982, and is a >French Virgin release. I'm not up on the exact chronology, but it must be >post-Japan, and is pre-"Brilliant Trees". It's co-produced by Steve Nye. >Did Sylvian do anything else with Sakamoto? It is indeed good and it's got a swoonsome pic of David, one of my lust objects of choice, on the cover. I think it came out immediately after Japan broke up. Sylvian and Sakamoto released another 12" called "Forbidden Colours" which is a rather pretty ballad. If you can't find the 12", you should certainly be able to hunt down the sound track to "Merry Xmas Mr. Lawrence," the David Bowie flick; Sakamoto did all the music and "For- bidden Colours" was the theme song. The sound track came out on some major label, and may still be in print. L-H mail reaches me a bit late here in out-of-the-way Baltimore, so forgive me if this is the 15th answer to your question (a la the Thomas Dolby inquiry)... Sue