Brilliant Trees

Produced by Sylvian with Steve Nye, it was his first full-length release after the break-up of his band Japan in December 1982 (though former Japan members Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri both appear on the album). AllMusic called the album "an eclectic affair fusing funk, jazz, and ambient."[8] Additional musicians on the album included Danny Thompson on acoustic bass, Jon Hassell on trumpet, and Ryuichi Sakamoto on keyboards. Sylvian and Sakamoto had previously collaborated on the singles "Bamboo Houses" and "Forbidden Colours", and continued to collaborate at various points in their careers.

Lyrically, the album includes references to writers, thinkers and artistic figures who were influencing Sylvian at the time, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. For instance, the song "Ink in the Well" references Cocteau's film Blood of a Poet and Sartre's novel The Age of Reason. Many of the lyrics also express Sylvian's searching explorations of spirituality in different forms.

The album peaked at no.4 in the UK, the highest chart position of Sylvian's career to date,[9] and contains his biggest solo hit, "Red Guitar", which reached no.17 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1994, ten years after its release, the album was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.[10]

In 1991, the album was reissued in the US as Brilliant Trees / Words with the Shaman, which included the three part single "Words with the Shaman" as bonus tracks; these songs were also included on the cassette-only album Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities. In 2003, a remastered limited digipak version of Brilliant Trees was released. In 2006 it was reissued in a standard jewel-case. The album cover for both releases was altered to a cropped photo of Sylvian with new type fonts.

In February 2019, as part of a redesigned monochrome sleeved vinyl reissue batch of his 80s albums, Brilliant Trees was released in a gatefold sleeve, once again with a new set of type fonts. No new mastering was done for this; the 2003 remaster was used.

Brilliant Trees was well received by the contemporary British music press. "Sylvian has grown up" wrote Sounds Caroline Linfield "He's left art school, gone through the grey and come out in a spectrum of pastel shades that entrance and enthrall. Gone is the clichéd imagery that often haunted Japan... in its place is a solo artist who deserves more respect than his beautiful face often allows." In an enthusiastic review Melody Maker's former Japan detractor Steve Sutherland concluded "Brilliant Trees inadvertently attains the stature Sylvian's always sought. It's a masterpiece."[11]

All tracks are written by David Sylvian, except as noted.

• David Sylvian – lead vocals, guitar, piano (treated), tapes, synthesizer, percussion instruments
• Steve Jansen – drums, synthesizer, percussion
• Holger Czukay – French horn, voice, guitar, dictaphone.
• Wayne Braithwaite – bass guitar tracks A1, A4
• Ronny Drayton – guitar tracks A1, A4
• Richard Barbieri – synthesizer track A1, B1
• Danny Thompson – double bass track A2
• Kenny Wheeler – flugelhorn tracks A2, A3
• Phil Palmer – guitar tracks A2, A3
• Steve Nye – synthesizer tracks A3, A4
• Ryuichi Sakamoto – synthesizer, piano track A4, B1, B3
• Mark Isham – trumpet track A1, A4
• Jon Hassell – trumpet B1, B3

• Yuka Fujii – photography
• David Sylvian – producer for Klangfarben Productions, mixing assistant
• Steve Nye – record producer for Klangfarben Productions, sound engineer, audio mixing A1, A3 to B1, B3
• P. Williams – sound engineer, mixing assistant mixer
• Nigel Walker – mixing tracks A1, B2