Former Japan frontman David Sylvian once reported somewhere that his solo career already started with the song Ghosts, an atmospheric and subdued song on the latest Japan album Tin Drum from 1981. Under the name Nine Horses and assisted by his brother and former Japanese colleague Steve Jansen and the Japanese keyboardist / composer Ryuichi Sakomoto, he seems to perfect the sound of Ghosts more than
… ever on Snow Borne Sorrow. On this somber and hushed album, Sylvian sings like a gentle crooner in musings such as The Banality Of Evil and Darkest Birds. Nowhere is there a raised voice, at most a light chorus to support or to lift a song to a chorus. The album has a consistent, nocturnal and slightly jazzy atmosphere with rhythm tracks purring deep, slow and dark. Pieces of saxophone, clarinet and vibraphone slice through this as tastefully as they are excruciatingly. A highlight in Sylvian's already impressive oeuvre. (MR)more
