*** David Sylvian

DEAD BEES ON A CAKE

(Virgin)

A sort-of-sequel to British pop experimentalist David Sylvian's career-defining 1987 album Secrets of the Beehive, this CD puts the focus squarely on melody. Of course, the ex-frontman for art-pop group Japan still keeps the pan-cultural aesthetic he minted on Secrets lively. Dead Bees mixes minimalism with the mystic-sounding microtonalities (and instrumentation) of Asian music, rock rhythm with a jazz-like sense of swing, and acoustic and electric textures into soundscape miniatures that fit titles like "The Shining of Things" and "Darkest Dreaming." The occasional fits of blazing guitar by past collaborators Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson are absent, replaced by the charming still-life fretboard sensibility of Bill Frisell and the manic nervous tics of quintessential New York City six-string master Marc Ribot. The important change, however, is in Sylvian's vocal approach. His phrasing's more relaxed, his timbre warmer and more generous. At times he seems to borrow the contemplative delivery of Billie Holiday, and the addition of his wife, Ingrid Chavez, as occasional vocalist brings a nice male-female yin/yang to the mix.

-- Ted Drozdowski