Gone to Earth is the third full-length solo album by David Sylvian

David Sylvian

David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...

, released in 1986.

History

The album is a two-record set featuring one record of vocal songs and one consisting entirely of ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

 instrumental tracks. Guest artists include Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

 (who co-wrote three songs) and Bill Nelson

Bill Nelson (musician)

Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...

 (who co-wrote one song). It was recorded in part at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, England, with producer Steve Nye.

Original UK, US and Japanese CD pressings omit four of the instrumentals: "Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples", "Camp Fire: Coyote Country", "A Bird of Prey Vanishes Into a Bright Blue Cloudless Sky" and "Sunlight Seen Through Towering Trees". Later Japanese CD editions and the "Weatherbox" set both included the complete album on two discs. In 2003, the album was re-released in a double-disc format that mirrors the original vinyl release, and included three bonus remixes.

Critics and fans alike agree that Sylvian has adopted familiar sounds of disbanded Japan, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Vinyl

Side A

1. "Taking the Veil" – 4:40
2. "Laughter and Forgetting" – 3:18
3. "Before the Bullfight" – 9:20
4. "Gone to Earth" (Robert Fripp
   Robert Fripp
   Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
   
   /Sylvian) – 3:06

Side B

1. "Wave" – 9:11
2. "River Man" – 4:54
3. "Silver Moon" – 6:19

Side C

1. "The Healing Place" – 5:34
2. "Answered Prayers" (Bill Nelson
   Bill Nelson (musician)
   Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
   
   /Sylvian) – 3:10
3. "Where the Railroad Meets the Sea" – 2:52
4. "The Wooden Cross" – 5:04
5. "Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples" – 2:22

Side D

1. "Camp Fire: Coyote Country" (Fripp/Sylvian) – 3:51
2. "A Bird of Prey Vanishes Into a Bright Blue Cloudless Sky" – 3:16
3. "Home" – 4:33
4. "Sunlight Seen Through Towering Trees" – 3:02
5. "Upon This Earth" (Fripp/Sylvian) – 6:30

2003 remastered CD

Disc one

1. "Taking the Veil" – 4:40
2. "Laughter and Forgetting" – 3:18
3. "Before the Bullfight" – 9:20
4. "Gone to Earth" (Robert Fripp
   Robert Fripp
   Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
   
   /Sylvian) – 3:06
5. "Wave" – 9:11
6. "River Man" – 4:54
7. "Silver Moon" – 6:19
8. "River Man (remix)" – 4:24
9. "Gone to Earth (remix) (Fripp/Sylvian)" – 1:56
10. "Camp Fire: Coyote Country (remix)" (Fripp/Sylvian) – 3:46

Disc two

1. "The Healing Place" – 5:34
2. "Answered Prayers" (Bill Nelson
   Bill Nelson (musician)
   Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
   
   /Sylvian) – 3:10
3. "Where the Railroad Meets the Sea" – 2:52
4. "The Wooden Cross" – 5:04
5. "Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples" – 2:22
6. "Camp Fire: Coyote Country" (Fripp/Sylvian) – 3:51
7. "A Bird of Prey Vanishes Into a Bright Blue Cloudless Sky" – 3:16
8. "Home" – 4:33
9. "Sunlight Seen Through Towering Trees" – 3:02
10. "Upon This Earth" (Fripp/Sylvian) – 6:30

Personnel

• David Sylvian
  David Sylvian
  David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
  
   - lead vocals, keyboards (A1, A3, B1, B2, B3), guitar (A1, A3, A4, B2) electronics (A1, A2)
• Robert Fripp
  Robert Fripp
  Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
  
   - guitar (A1, A4, B1, B2, B3, D1, D5), Frippetronics (A4, B1, B2, B3)
• Steve Jansen
  Steve Jansen
  Steve Jansen is an English drummer, percussionist, singer and composer. He was educated at Catford Boys' School, Catford, South East London, where he failed academically, leaving at 16....
  
   - drums (A1, A3, B1, B2, B3)
• Phil Palmer
  Phil Palmer
  Philip 'Phil' John Palmer is a sideman and session guitarist in jazz and rock who has toured, recorded, and worked with numerous famous artists...
  
   - acoustic guitar (A1)
• Ian Maidman - bass (A1, B2, B3)
• Kenny Wheeler
  Kenny Wheeler
  Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
  
   - flugelhorn (A2, A3)
• John Taylor
  John Taylor (jazz)
  John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
  
   - piano (A2)
• Bill Nelson
  Bill Nelson (musician)
  Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
  
   - guitar (A3, B1, B3, C1, C2, D4)
• Richard Barbieri
  Richard Barbieri
  Richard Barbieri, is an English synthesiser player, keyboardist and composer. He was educated at Catford Boys' School, Catford, South East London...
  
   - electronics (A3, B1)
• Harry Beckett
  Harry Beckett
  Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player.-Biography:A resident in the UK since 1954, Harry Beckett had an international reputation. In 1961, he played with Charles Mingus in the film All Night Long. In the 1960s he worked and recorded within the band of bass...
  
   - flugelhorn (B1)
• Mel Collins
  Mel Collins
  Mel Collins is a British saxophonist and flautist and session musician.He has worked in a wide variety of contexts ranging from R&B and blues rock to jazz, but is perhaps known for his work in progressive rock, as with King Crimson, Camel and the Alan Parsons Project.-Career:Collins has worked...
  
   - sax (B2, B3)
• B.J. Cole - pedal steel (B3, C5)

Additional personnel

• Russell Mills
  Russell Mills (artist)
  Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
  
   - design
• David Buckland - photography
• Steve Nye
  Steve Nye
  Steve Nye is a music producer for several artists. Some of his better known artists include Bryan Ferry , Penguin Cafe Orchestra, XTC , Japan , David Sylvian , Clannad, TM Network, Scary Thieves , as...
  
  - engineer, piano (C3)
• Nick Blundell- assistant engineer
• Julian Wheatley assistant engineer
• Noel Haris - assistant engineer
• Catherine Wilson - assistant engineer
• Yuka Fujii - special thanks