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For the few that got to hear the original release of 'The Opiates' it was an absorbing, captivating experience featuring the deep, rich vocals of Thomas Feiner – but it was a project that'd once threatened to go unfinished. Whilst the album began as a group effort, the band Anywhen dissolved in the two years it took to complete – leaving Feiner to finish the project alone.

This revised, re-packaged and remastered edition of 'The Opiates' will be the first time many will have heard of the album or the artist Thomas Feiner (although a track was included on David Sylvian's 'The World Is Everything' tour book sampler cd). The release comes several years after Sylvian was introduced to the work, which he regards as something of a lost classic having only been released in a few territories. The addition of two new Feiner tracks have further strengthened what was already a remarkably beautiful recording. 

Sylvian recalls, "The dark, brooding, romantic nature of the material and, in particular, the emotional gravity of Thomas' voice, came as something of a surprise to me as it was quite out of keeping with my listening habits of the time but I couldn't help but be drawn into its widescreen, colour-drained, soundscapes."

Presented as ever in a beautiful digipak designed by Chris Bigg, featuring exquisite images of Jean Cocteau and Marcel Khill taken by Cecil Beaton.

For more information and to hear a stream of the album please visit: www.thomasfeiner.com

You can pre-order the album from today at the SamadhiSound store.

Available immediately is the lead track from the album, 'The Siren Songs', as an mp3 or FLAC: www.samadhisoundshop.com

Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, Feiner was the frontman of Anywhen throughout the ‘90s, working with a core group of Mikael Andersson Tigerström on bass, Kalle Thorslund on drums, and Jan Sandahl on guitar. Originally recorded in 2001, The Opiates was to be the band’s third full-length album, and its last.

This updated, re-packaged and newly mastered edition of The Opiates includes two of Feiner’s more recent songs: “Yonderhead,” and “For Now,” which was also featured in the German film ‘Love in Thoughts’. For many this will be the first they have heard of Feiner, and it comes several years after Sylvian first heard the album, which he regards as a lost classic since it never came out in many territories.

Sylvian recalls, “The dark, brooding, romantic nature of the material and, in particular, the emotional gravity of Thomas' voice, came as something of a surprise to me as it was quite out of keeping with my listening habits of the time but I couldn't help but be drawn into its widescreen, colour-drained, soundscapes.”

Presented as ever in a beautiful digipak featuring exquisite artwork (with a cover photo of Jean Cocteau taken by Cecil Beaton), and designed by Chris Bigg.

The Invisible Man

In the Eighties British Zen-glam group Japan, drummer Steve Jansen was as important for what he chose not to play - he is practically vapor on marimba in the band's plaintive classic "Ghosts" - as for his irregular heartbeats in "The Art of Parties" and "Still Life in Mobile Homes." On his solo album, Slope (Samadhisound), Jansen is a constant presence on percussion, keyboards and samples - making slow- blooming, Asian-flavored atmospheres that seem as fragile as rice paper - while giving the front line to singer-lyricists including Anja Garbarek (the daughter of saxophonist Jan Garbarek), Joan Wasser (a.k.a. Joan as Police Woman) and David Sylvian, the ex-Japan singer and Jansen's older brother. Sylvian's showcase "Playground Martyrs" recalls the exotic whispers of the siblings' old band, while "Ballad of a Deadman", with Sylvian and Wasser in sinister duet, is a cowboy-ninja blues with acoustic guitars plucked like kotos and a strangely rousing hanging-party chorus. Jansen contributes a philharmonic's worth of rhythm, riff and color to the song - and does it all like he's just passing through in a cloud of dust.

DAVID FRICKE

CD ArtPop 5/6

The first solo album from Steve Jansen is a very likeable affair. He plays with sound and prefers a crispy surface with nerves lurking in the basement .  This is art pop with experimental tendencies and rhythmic sanity, realised by a very competent programmer.  It is the vocalists who give the music a stroke of warmth, without challenging the cool elegance that runs through the tracks.  Anja Garbareks contribution is fragile on the border of transparent.  The melody lines she pulls on "Cancelled Pieces" are dew-fresh and springy, and she is surrounded by well thought-out good ideas.  Yes, I have hardly heard her better!  Tim Elsenburg and Thomas Feiner also make good characters, but the moment David Sylvian gives his voice to "Playround Martyrs" the meaning of the song falls into place.  Nina Kinert does an honourable version of the same song towards the end of the album.  Steve Jansen is an exciting leader.

ARILD R. ANDERSON

We have a very limited number of the beautifully produced "The World Is Everything" tour book currently being shipped to our warehouse and now available for pre-order in our online store.

The tour book is hard-backed with full colour quality printing and contains photographs taken by David, song lyrics, credits for the tour itself, and a sampler CD featuring a selection from the artists on Samadhisound. The sampler includes two tracks by David unavailable elsewhere entitled 'The World Is Everything' and 'Sleepwalkers'.

The tracklisting for the sampler is:

1. David Sylvian - The World Is Everything
2. Thomas Feiner And Anywhen - Siren Song
3. Harold Budd - Chrysalis Nu
4. Steve Jansen Feat Tim Elsenburg - Sleepyard
5. David Sylvian - Sleepwalkers
6. Nine Horses - Atom And Cell
7. Akira Rabelais - 1382 Wycliff Gen. Ii 7
8. Nine Horses - Get The Hell Out (Remix)
9. Masakatsu Takagi Feat David Sylvian - Exit / Delete
10. Harold Budd - Templar
11. David Toop - Heating And Cooling - Edit

As we've had many inquiries from people interested in purchasing a copy of the book since the tour ended we anticipate demand will be high and the edition is strictly limited and in short supply. The price will be $40.00 (plus postage and packing).

We won't have the book available for a few weeks yet but we'll be accepting pre-orders in our store from today. They will be shipped as soon as they arrive at our warehouse.

Contemporary Art and Photography in Japan - 'STILL/ALIVE'
Showing at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Period：December 22.2007 → February 20.2008