Rain Tree Crow: album reviews and ratings

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Reviews & Recommendations

"And my heart sings of many things, In Cries and Whispers"	Rain Tree Crow David Sylvian (vocals, guitars), Mick Karn (bass), Steve Jansen (percussion, drums), Richard Barbieri (Synthesizers)

Artist Listing:

S - Z

My roads uncrossed
White lined and tarred
By believing in you
Every colour you are
-- David Sylvian, RTC

Rain Tree Crow is the reunion of Japan's former members David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri, under a new band name, intentionaly drawing the line between their past neo-romantic years and the evolved entity they became in 1990. Unfortunately, Rain Tree Crow is not the start of a new era for the quartet, but only a single album collaboration, mostly improvised at Miravel Studios, France, between Sep 89 and Apr 90. The outcome is not an easy listen, but a blend of exotic acoustics, jazz-like rythms, and ambient atmospheric sounds, all enveloped by Sylvian's brooding voice.
While you will instantly fall in love with a song like BlackWater, the rest of the album might take numerous listens before it grows on you.

-- Said Sukkarieh, Musicfolio, 10/99

Rain Tree Crow Discography - Album / CD Reviews

¾ 1991: Rain Tree Crow
" (...) The album is primarily improvised, and was a collaborative effort that took a year to complete. The result lacks the intimacy that surfaces in Sylvian's solo music, instead returning to the eeriness and foreignness of Japan. (...) The full-bodied Blackcrow Hits Shoe Shine City or Pocket Full of Change recall Sylvian's solo explorations. Other pieces including the hollow, whistling atmospherics of the title track and the rhythmic, off-kilter New Moon at Red Deer Wallow recapture the otherworldliness of Japan. And that's where the album is at its best. Rain Tree Crow is not ponderous, as Japan once had pretensions to be, but it fills a darkened room nicely."

-- Sue Peter, Option, 92

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Recommended Links:

RTC on Wikipedia
DavidSylvian.com
MickKarn.net