Gone to Earth

Gone to Earth is a two-record set: one record of songs with vocals and one of ambient instrumentals. It was recorded through 1985 and mid-1986 at Jam Studios in North London, Eel Pie Studios and The Manor in Oxfordshire, with Steve Nye producing. Sylvian said in 1987 that he would have liked to record it all at Shipton Manor but the studio time ran out. Earlier he had composed the film soundtrack Steel Cathedrals and the work Words with the Shaman, and he persuaded Virgin to release Words with the Shaman as a 12-inch EP while Steel Cathedrals was kept for video. Robert Fripp co-wrote three songs and Bill Nelson one.

Within some songs Sylvian placed the voices of other figures: Robert Graves, who recites his poem The Foreboding, J. G. Bennett and Joseph Beuys. Taking the Veil took its title and lyrical theme from a book by Max Ernst, and Laughter and Forgetting was partly inspired by Milan Kundera's novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Sylvian pushed for River Man as the lead single, but Virgin chose the more uptempo Taking the Veil, which reached number 53. Silver Moon followed, reaching number 83 in October 1986. The company funded only the songs, so Sylvian paid for the instrumental record himself. The album reached number 24 in Britain and was certified Silver. Sounds critic Chris Roberts called it an Eighties masterpiece. Russell Mills designed the sleeve, which drew on Sylvian's interest in Rosicrucianism and Gnosticism and the writings of Robert Fludd. The original CD pressings left out four instrumentals, and the complete album was on the Weatherbox set.