Camphor (album)

Camphor
Compilation album by David Sylvian
Released	27 May 2002
Genre	Alternative rock, ambient
Label	Venture, Virgin
Producer	David Sylvian
David Sylvian chronology
Everything and Nothing (2000) Camphor (2002) Blemish (2003)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Pitchfork	6.6/10[2]

Camphor is a David Sylvian compilation album released in 2002 as a companion to Everything and Nothing. The focus is on his instrumental work. The album, nonetheless, has two previously unreleased tracks: "The Song Which Gives the Key to Perfection" and "Camphor".

"Wave" has been cut to the last segment of the original song, so that the vocal parts have been deleted, and it has been orchestrated. In "Mother and Child", the vocal parts have been replaced by the trumpet. "Upon This Earth" is shorter and re-recorded.

It was released in two versions. A standard single disc jewel case (CDVE 962) and as a limited edition 2CD digipak (CDVEX 962).

Track listing

Disc One

1. "All of My Mother's Names"
2. "Red Earth (As Summertime Ends)"
3. "Answered Prayers"
4. "The Song Which Gives the Key to Perfection (Siddha Kunjika Stotram)"
   • originally featured on the CD accompanying the 2002 Everything & Nothing Tour Programme
5. "New Moon at Red Deer Wallow"
6. "Praise (Pratah Smarami)"
7. "Wave [Version]"
8. "Mother and Child [Version]"
9. "Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts) [Detail]"
10. "Upon This Earth [Remix]"
11. "Big Wheels in Shanty Town"
12. "The Healing Place"
13. "Camphor"
    • originally featured on the CD accompanying the 2002 Everything & Nothing Tour Programme
14. "A Brief Conversation Ending in Divorce"

Disc Two (Limited Edition Only)

1. "Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts) [Remixed Version]"
2. "Mutability (A New Beginning Is in the Offing) [Detail]"
3. "Premonition (Giant Empty Iron Vessel) [Remixed Version]"

Disc one:

• Tracks 1, 6 from Dead Bees on a Cake.
• Tracks 2, 5, 11 from Rain Tree Crow.
• Track 14 from Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities.

Personnel

Exclusively about the unreleased or re-recorded tracks.

• "Answered Prayers": Bill Nelson (acoustic guitar), David Sylvian (guitar, voice).
• "The Song Which Gives the Key to Perfection": Shree Maa (composer, tambura), David Sylvian (vocals, electric piano, guitar, bass, arrangement).
• "Wave (Version)" Steve Jansen (drums), Robert Fripp (guitar), Simon Jeffes (orchestration), David Sylvian (Hammond, synth, bass, remixing).
• "Mother and Child": David Torn (acoustic guitar), Danny Thompson (double bass), Danny Cummings (percussion), Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano, Hammond), Erik Honoré (remixing, sampler), Jan Bang (remixing, sampler, synth), Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, effects).
• "Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts) Detail": Holger Czukay (electronics, organ, piano, orchestra, effects), David Sylvian (harmonium, guitar, synth, remixing).
• "Upon This Earth": Robert Fripp (guitar), David Sylvian (guitar, piano, synth, remixing).
• "The Healing Place": Bill Nelson (guitar solo), David Sylvian (guitar, synth).
• "Camphor": David Sylvian (all instruments).

Additional personnel

• Kevin Westenberg - photography
• Russell Mills - design
• Michael Webster - assistant designer

Mastering problems

"The Healing Place" and "Answered Prayers" are both mastered improperly in two ways: they were 44,100Hz recordings that were mistakenly played back during mastering at 48,000Hz; their waveforms are inverted, though the channel assignments are correct. Upon playing they appear to be shorter (4:52.173 vs. 5:18.074 for The Healing Place and 2:45.426 vs 3:00.137 for Answered Prayers) and play as if in a different key. The recordings can be fixed by upsampling Camphor's versions to 48,000Hz then setting the resulting file's sample rate to 44,100Hz then inverting the sample data. This would result in essentially the same files as would be found on the remastered version of Gone To Earth

References