David Sylvian, a.k.a. David Batt, is an iconoclastic British singer and songwriter who first rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the band Japan in the late 1970s. Japan, whose other members included Mick Karn, Rob Dean, Richard Barbieri and Sylvian's brother Steve Jansen, began its career as a glam rock outfit in the mold of David Bowie and The New York Dolls, but quickly altered their musical approach to become one of the first bands in the early-1980s New Romantic movement. Their look and sound followed the lead of Roxy Music and presaged such acts as Duran Duran. They broke up in 1982 and Sylvian pursued a solo career.
Sylvian's singing met with a great deal of early criticism for sounding affected, and too much in imitation of Roxy Music's frontman Bryan Ferry. But by the end of Japan's run, his voice had begun to mature into its own distinctive baritone.
Sylvian's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees (1984), met with critical acclaim and yielded the single "Red Guitar". His follow-up was an ambitious two-record set, Gone to Earth (1986), which flouted convention (and perhaps commercial wisdom) by featuring one record of vocal pop songs and one consisting entirely of atmospheric instrumentals. Guest artists included Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson.
His third album, Secrets of the Beehive (1987), was more acoustic and oriented towards somber, emotive ballads. It yielded one of Sylvian's most well-received songs, "Orpheus," and was supported by his first solo tour, 1988's "In Praise of Shamans".
Never one to conform to commercial expectations, Sylvian then collaborated on several ambient projects with artists like Holger Czukay and Russell Mills.
In 1991, a highly-anticipated Japan reunion fizzled. Sylvian insisted on calling the project and the album Rain Tree Crow, to the dismay of both his label Virgin Records (who were hoping for a hit "comeback" album) and his former bandmates. Sylvian reportedly assumed a controlling temperament over the entire recording, turning the record, in effect, into his newest solo project. This badly alienated Karn, who has not associated with Sylvian personally or professionally to this day.
In 1993, Sylvian startled many of his long-term fans by teaming with Robert Fripp on the album The First Day, which married Sylvian's philosophical lyrics to hard-driving progressive rock songs very much in the mold of Fripp's band King Crimson. The album's centerpiece was a dance track, "Darshan," over 17 minutes in length. This was released as its own EP with a remix by The Future Sound of London.
Following a tour for the album, Fripp reportedly asked Sylvian to join his newest incarnation of King Crimson (which would go on to release the album Thrak in 1994). Sylvian declined on the grounds that he didn't want to join a band with an established history, and then he and Fripp had an acrimonious split. A live album from their tour, Damage, was released in 1994, which Sylvian remixed and re-released to his liking in 2001.
There followed a period of musical inactivity during which Sylvian married singer Ingrid Chavez and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1999, Sylvian released Dead Bees on a Cake, his first solo album since Beehive. It showed the most eclectic influence of all his recordings, ranging from soul to jazz fusion to Eastern spiritual chants, and most of the songs' lyrics reflected the now over-40 Sylvian's inner peace from his marriage, family and beliefs. Guest artists included longtime friend Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as Talvin Singh and Bill Frisell.
Following Dead Bees, Sylvian released a few compilations through Virgin, the retrospective Everything & Nothing and Camphor, which collected several of his ambient collaborations. Then Sylvian parted ways with Virgin (for whom he had never exactly been a chart-topper) and launched his own independent label, Samadhi Sound. In 2003 he released the album Blemish and announced a tour.