David Sylvian

Featuring: Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson, Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri

condition (record/cover):  NM / VG+ (ring and edges wear)

Gatefold sleeve.

The follow-up to Brilliant Trees, released September 1986 as a double LP on Virgin (VDL 1) and David Sylvian's most ambitious recording. Gone To Earth expands the Brilliant Trees methodology across two discs: Sides One and Two contain the song material (with Sylvian's voice and lyrics); Sides Three and Four are entirely instrumental, sustained ambient-orchestral pieces in the Eno / Hassell tradition.

The personnel reads as a roll-call of 1980s art-music collaboration. Robert Fripp plays guitar throughout, his Frippertronics-derived sustained tones threading the entire album together. Bill Nelson plays guitar on the song sides. Kenny Wheeler returns on flugelhorn. Mel Collins adds saxophone. Steve Jansen plays drums and percussion. Richard Barbieri plays synth. John Taylor plays piano. The song sides include "Taking The Veil", "Laughter And Forgetting", "Before The Bullfight", "Gone To Earth" itself and "Wave"; the instrumental sides ("The Healing Place", "Camp Fire: Coyote Country", "Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples" and others) move through long, drifting tonal landscapes.

The original vintage Virgin UK 2LP pressing on VDL 1, gatefold sleeve with Russell Mills's cover painting. Gone To Earth is the album where Sylvian's post-Japan project found its full scale: an extended meditation on faith, mortality and English landscape.