Blemish (2022 Vinyl re-issue)

A 180gram vinyl reissue of David Sylvian’s Blemish album, released on 2nd September 2022. It features the bonus track ‘Trauma’.

Blemish was David Sylvian’s first solo album to be issued on his samadhisound label. Initially released online in 2003, the vinyl version was published in 2004 and is now a collector’s item. Working primarily solo, Sylvian created an impromptu suite of songs for guitar, electronics and voice. The compositions were crafted from improvisational sessions by Sylvian and the acclaimed free-jazz guitarist Derek Bailey on three tracks and Austrian guitarist and producer Christian Fennesz on ‘A Fire In The Forest’.

Sylvian said about the album at the time, ‘I wanted to get into those difficult emotions, and penetrate them as deeply as I felt I was capable of doing, in the security of that working space. So, although there were elements of my life that were bringing all these negative emotions to the fore, what I was doing in the studio was taking them further – whereas in life we try to restrain them, we hold them back. We don’t allow ourselves to go too far with it because they feel dangerous, they feel threatening. Living through these emotions was very difficult, but finding a voice for them was so cathartic. After that six-week period, I‘d felt I’d worked through some very difficult emotions. I felt an enormous amount of release.’

This new version of Blemish (1LP) has been recut for vinyl by veteran engineer Tony Cousins at Metropolis studios.