Dead Bees on a Cake

It began as three weeks in New York with Sakamoto co-producing, which were abandoned. Second sessions at Real World with other players also left Sylvian unsatisfied, though there, after working through a series of drummers, bass players and percussionists, he chose Ged Lynch and John Giblin. Back in Minneapolis he rebuilt the arrangements from samples of the many performances, becoming his own producer, engineer and studio technician, and the work ran until late summer 1998. He later said he ran into so many problems producing it.

The lyrics reflect the peace he had found in marriage, family and faith, and the album is dedicated to Mata Amritanandamayi, whom he calls Amma. Sakamoto, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, Kenny Wheeler and Talvin Singh are among the players, and it samples the Mahavishnu Orchestra, John Lee Hooker and John Cage. Pitchfork gave it 7.3 and found its musical vision too advanced to dismiss as new age, while AllMusic heard beautiful tracks that went nowhere. Sylvian said it was poorly received. A 2018 Record Store Day double vinyl reordered the album and added four songs meant for it that had come out on Everything and Nothing.