Following Leaving Backstage, Back To Live is Sylvan’s second full live set to make it onto a two-disc package. What prog fans take from this latest release will largely depend on their expectations, particularly from those of us who have been fans for some time. It’s a really solid live set from a great band in their prime. More than that, it’s fantastic to hear a complete set recorded at the much-hallowed Poppodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Netherlands – by one of the finest bands around today. And this is especially true for people like me, a British prog fan who has only been fortunate enough to see them support Pendragon years ago at Leamington Assembly Hall. This is the closest I’m going to get to hearing them live again unless I jump on a plane or the Eurostar to get closer to their neighbourhood (the last tour was a co-headline with RPWL, and I must admit to being tempted).
So, is there a problem and, if so, what is it? Well, Leaving Backstage followed the releases of Sylvan’s lauded concept album, Posthumous Silence and the equally excellent Presets. The concert was a 10th anniversary recorded in their hometown of Hamburg and featured a complete performance of Posthumous Silence and a range of material from their previous albums as well as Presets. The whole performance was a whopping two and a half hours, spread across the two discs. Back To Live, on the other hand, is just 90 minutes. Now, of course, one could argue that that is just how long the gig was and that’s pretty standard for a live band. If, however, one is looking for an album that is a live testament to the band’s studio output since Leaving Backstage, then one is likely to be disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the quality of the recording and the band’s performance on the night which was clearly exemplary and no less excellent than Leaving Backstage, but I wonder if they might not have been better putting together a live recording from several gigs since touring Force Of Gravity in order to represent those albums a little better than they are here. For one thing, whilst material from Sceneries, one of the band’s finest albums, is completely absent, we have four tracks off Posthumous Silence which Leaving Backstage already gave us a complete recording of.
Force Of Gravity is represented on this set by ‘King Porn’. It’s a live version which actually improves on its studio counterpart, but it is also the weakest track on a studio album full of gems. Sceneries, as I’ve already mentioned, is not represented at all, despite fairly recent longer sets including parts of Farewell To Old Friends. Home, which I believe is Sylvan’s best album to date, only has the admittedly impressive In Between for the set’s opener. I’m pleased that the two tracks from older albums (not including the four tracks from PS) are different to the tracks on Leaving Backstage and, more than that, I think this live version of Given, Used, Forgotten is an absolute corker. As for the four tracks from One To Zero, well one cannot go wrong with any of the songs picked from their latest. Nevertheless, I’d have liked to have heard them do a live take of On My Odyssey.
This leaves us with the material from Posthumous Silence. The album obviously has a special place in the hearts of both the band and the fans, and rightly so. Listening to them round out the set with the album’s closing tracks is understandably moving and would have been a fitting end to the gig at the Boerderij. Would I listen to these versions over the previous live versions? I don’t know that it matters and as someone who has parted with a number of live albums over the years owing to track repetition, one must ask themselves why they are buying a live album. Bands want fans to purchase albums, rather than stream them. To that end, there needs to be something they don’t already have (and enough of it to warrant paying the £16.99 asking price this comes with). I own every album by Sylvan, and I have also purchased the recent, excellent studio efforts from Marco Glühmann and Beck & Soehl’s Violent Jasper. Back To Live is the first recording of theirs I won’t be investing in. If you want an excellent recording of Sylvan at the Boerderij, don’t let me put you off. If you’re already a fan and have Leaving Backstage, again, don’t let me put you off. For me, this could have done with something extra. Some additional live tracks from other shows where Force Of Gravity, Sceneries or Home were better represented or perhaps an acoustic slot would have definitely pushed this over the line for me.
TRACK LISTING
01. In Between (11:32)
02. Encoded At Heart (6:56)
03. Trust In Yourself (5:53)
04. Given, Used, Forgotten (13:07)
05. King Porn (7:59)
06. Part Of Me (9:36)
07. In Chains (9:54)
08. The Colors Changed (6:32)
09. Heal (4:44)
10. Go Viral (6:27)
11. A Kind Of Eden (4:25)
12. Posthumous Silence (5:42)
Total Time – 92:39
MUSICIANS
Marco Glühmann – Vocals
Volker Söhl – Keyboards
Matthias Harder – Drums
Sebastian Harnack – Bass
~ With:
Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Beck – Guitars
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Gentle Art Of Music (GOAM)
Format: 2CD | Double Vinyl | Digital
Country of Origin: Germany
Date of Release: 12th July 2024