Flux + Mutability
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Flux + Mutability
| type = studio
| artist = David Sylvian and Holger Czukay
| cover = Flux + Mutability.jpg
| alt =
| released = 4 September 1989{{cite magazine|date=26 August 1989|title=New Album Releases|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-and-Media/80s/1989/M&M-1989-08-26.pdf|magazine=Music & Media|page=17|access-date=13 March 2022|accessdate=}}
| recorded = December 1988
| studio = Inner Space Studio, Cologne
| venue =
| genre = Ambient
| length = 37:55
| label = Venture, Virgin{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsaoAwAAQBAJ&q=flux+mutability+david+sylvian+&pg=PT154|title=Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock since the 1960s|first1=Paul|last1=Hegarty|first2=Martin|last2=Halliwell|date=June 23, 2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441114808|via=Google Books}}
| producer = David Sylvian, Holger Czukay
| chronology = David Sylvian
| prev_title = Plight and Premonition
| prev_year = 1988
| next_title = Weatherbox
| next_year = 1989
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Holger Czukay
| type = studio
| prev_title = Plight & Premonition
| prev_year = 1988
| title = Flux + Mutability
| year = 1989
| next_title = Radio Wave Surfer
| next_year = 1991
}}
}}
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r19560}}
|rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
|rev2score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=8 |pages=9–10}}
|rev3 = MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide
|rev3score = {{rating|2|5}}{{cite book |title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |date=1999 |publisher=Visible Ink Press |page=1118}}
|rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
|rev4score = {{rating|2|5}}{{cite book |title=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=1992 |publisher=Random House |pages=688–689}}
}}
Flux + Mutability is the second collaboration between David Sylvian and Holger Czukay.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/holger-czukay-mn0000088122/biography|title=Holger Czukay | Biography & History|website=AllMusic}} It was released in September 1989. The music consists of two instrumental tracks improvised by the participants.
The album was reissued by Gronland in 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/50791/gronland-reissue-david-sylvian-holger-czukay-s-1980s-records|title=Grönland reissue David Sylvian & Holger Czukay's 1980s collaborations - The Wire|website=The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music}}
Production
The album was recorded at Can's Inner Space Studio.{{Cite web|url=https://www.factmag.com/2012/02/08/the-essential-david-sylvian/|title=The Essential... David Sylvian - Page 9 of 11|date=February 8, 2012}}
Critical reception
Reviewing the reissue package, Pitchfork wrote that "Czukay’s side is the more active of the two. Driven by a small drum pattern played by Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit, the piece is evocatively subtitled 'A Big, Bright, Colourful World'. Its light synth drones and radio noise are illuminated by the lens flares of Markus Stockhausen’s flugelhorn and then slightly darkened by some fragmented guitar figures added by another Can member, Michael Karoli."{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/david-sylvian-holger-czukay-plight-and-premonition-flux-and-mutability/|title=David Sylvian / Holger Czukay: Plight & Premonition / Flux & Mutability|website=Pitchfork}} The Rolling Stone Album Guide opined that Flux was the more interesting of the two Czukay/Sylvian collaborations, but wrote that "why anyone would bother making such a distinction is hard to say, given the generally vacuous nature of the music." Fact wrote that "while Plight & Premonition felt like a study in unease, wracked with paranoia, Flux + Mutability admits the possibility, if not any certainty, of earthly bliss."
Track listing
- "Flux (A Big, Bright, Colourful World)" (Sylvian, Czukay) – 16:56
- "Mutability (A New Beginning Is in the Offing)" (Sylvian, Czukay) – 20:59
Personnel
- Holger Czukay – electric guitar (1), bass guitar (1), dictaphone (1), radio (1), engineer
- David Sylvian – guitar (1, 2), keyboard instruments (1, 2), art director
- Michael Karoli – electric guitar (1)
- Michi - voice (1)
- Markus Stockhausen – flugelhorn (1)
- Jaki Liebezeit – percussion (1), African flute (2)
=Additional personnel=
- René Tinner - technical advice and assistant
- Yuka Fujii - art director, cover art, photography design
- David Buckland - front cover photography
Published by Opium (Arts) Ltd./Spoon Music
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060516202112/http://www.czukay.de/history/discography/index.html Holger Czukay's discography]
- [http://thequietus.com/articles/24916-david-sylvian-holger-czukay-plight-premonition David Sylvian On Collaborating With Holger Czukay]
{{Holger Czukay}}
{{David Sylvian}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Virgin Records albums
[[Category: 1989 collaborative albums