SHADOWY FIGURE

David Sylvian

by J. Edward Keyes

[ SATURDAY, MAY 4 ]

David Sylvian began life with the willfully idiosyncratic art-rock combo Japan. For four years Sylvian and his clammy compatriots deftly fused Dalí-washes of synth with zigzagging guitar. As with any band characterized by obliqueness, Japan quickly came flying off the hinges. Now in his solo career, alternating ambient works of misty keyboards (the kind critics helplessly refer to as "lush soundscapes") with icy pop, Sylvian has run a course parallel to artists like David Bowie and Bryan Ferry. The double-disc outtakes compendium Everything and Nothing finds Sylvian surrendering to a schizoid muse. He wraps his haunted voice around skewed pop songs like "Jean the Birdman" and ominous dirges like "Riverman" with equal acuity. The title of his masterwork, Dead Bees on a Cake, also serves as a summation of Sylvian's dedication to raining blood on the hit parade. His show at the TLA warrants investigation because Sylvian's erratic impulses will likely produce a performance of staggering breadth and relentless despair. However his phantoms choose to manifest themselves, David Sylvian has made it abundantly clear that taking the low road to adult contemporary hell is not an option he's willing to entertain. In a world where even the most daring indie sensations are little more than the quotient of some marketing director's warped Fibonacci sequence, Sylvian's bitchy defiance of convention is damn near revolutionary.
9pm. $35. Theater of Living Arts, 334 South St. 215.336.2000. www.electricfactory.com