Secrets of The Beehive

The next 18 months proved to be a fertile period in terms of songwriting, and David Sylvian soon found himself with a new collection of material. This time he arranged the songs mainly for acoustic instruments with strings, woodwind and brass. His long time ally Ryuichi Sakamoto worked closely with him on the recordings which were produced at Studio Miraval in the South of France by Steve Nye. As usual Sylvian had put together a crack team of players including Danny Thompson on double bass, Phil Palmer on acoustic guitar, Danny Cummings on percussion, Mark Isham on trumpet and flugelhorn, David Torn on electric guitars, and Steve Jansen on drums and percussion. For all the restrained virtuosity of the band, the resulting album Secrets Of The Beehive, (released in October 1987) highlighted the lyrical content of songs which, while intensely personal, were his most appealing to date.