David Sylvian and Holger Czukay became good friends when Czukay helped Sylvian on his first solo album "Forbidden Trees," which by the way is an excellent album. Around that time, Czukay invited Sylvian to come to his studio in Germany, where he recorded and played with his previous band Can. They made two albums together "Plight & Premonition" and "Flux & Mutability." Both albums are now reissued on vinyl in one beautiful package, courtesy of Grönland Records, who have been reissuing a lot of Czukay's recorded work.
On the surface, first, listen one thinks of the David Bowie instrumental sides from "Low" and "Heroes." They border on the ambient side, but there is something textural that is not precisely like wallpaper music. The same goes for the Sylvian and Czukay pieces. Also, these four pieces on the album are improvised works, and I'm not sure how to improvise the Bowie tracks were. Nevertheless, these primarily instrumental works (with some borrowed voices deep in the mix) are very much in the aesthetic and sound of the Sylvian and Czukay world. Their relationship is perfect for making music. To my ears, Sylvian is attracted to third world or Asian melodies, and Czukay has his ears tuned into the European 20th-century classic mode. There are traces of western orchestration that comes and goes in the mix, and it is indeed a world where the band Japan meets Can.
My favorite cut is "Mutability" which has a lot of guitars, with various pedals/effects. It's a majestic piece of music. The music is mellow, but one is never sure how things will play out in the music. For instance, at the beginning of "Plight," there's a sound of either a voice or a bird screeching that is startling to the listener. It reminds me of the famous film cut in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" where a parrot shows up suddenly with a loud screech. A superb collection of two albums, with a beautiful essay by David Toop.
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