"I fell into a trance-like state…" — a concise brief of David Sylvian's rare interview

This interview excerpt captures David Sylvian recalling how two collaborative records with Holger Czukay came into being and what made working with Czukay distinctive. The pieces commonly cited as Plight & Premonition and Flux & Mutability emerged out of an easy, pleasure-driven collaboration rather than a mapped-out career move. Grönland Records reissued the albums, prompting Uncut to publish the full email exchange that didn't fit into a print issue.

Why the collaboration mattered to Sylvian

Sylvian frames the partnership as founded on friendship: shared interests, mutual respect, and enjoyment of one another's company. He points to Czukay's earlier album Movies as evidence of Czukay's genre-defying approach and notes that Czukay combined humour with experimental composition in ways that were rare.

Sylvian describes Czukay as a multi-role figure — composer, producer, musician, engineer — whose working methods were unconventional and difficult to replicate. He links Czukay's inventiveness to a personal transformation after leaving Can, during which Czukay reportedly developed a stronger sense of humour and an altered outlook that informed his later work.

Sylvian recounts arriving at Can Studios to record a vocal for a different project (Holger's Rome Remains Rome). The session unfolded in the late evening. Instruments lined the studio: a grand piano, Jaki Liebezeit's kit, and a pump organ at the rear.

Sylvian sat at the pump organ and began a sustained drone — "an asthmatic wheezing of tones" — which he found sonically appealing. Orchestral samples were played back through foldback monitors across the room, creating repeating ethereal loops. While playing, Sylvian says he fell into a trance-like state, responding to the looping textures. He later moved to the piano, searching for a pattern, and the spontaneous interplay of instruments and samples fed the music that became Plight & Premonition.

The interview was published to complement reissues of the Sylvian–Czukay albums, which Uncut calls touchstones in ambient music and among Sylvian's best work. The conversation offers a clear example of how improvisation, chance, and friendship can redirect an artist's output and produce enduring recordings.