Manafon

Manafon was released on 14 September 2009 on Samadhisound. It combines free improvisation, experimental rock and chamber music, and it was recorded over three years in Vienna, Tokyo and London. Nothing was written before the sessions, so the choice of players for each improvisation mattered most. Sylvian took the recordings away and wrote and recorded his vocal over them in a couple of hours, adding little editing beyond overdubs and occasional introductions. The players included Fennesz, Evan Parker, Keith Rowe, John Tilbury, Otomo Yoshihide, Toshimaru Nakamura, Sachiko M. and members of Polwechsel. A boxed edition came with a 5.1 DVD and the documentary Amplified Gesture.

The title refers to a village in Powys, Wales, where the poet R. S. Thomas served as rector. Sylvian called the real village a metaphor for the poetic imagination. The seventh track refers to Emily Dickinson. The Wire ranked the album sixth among its best albums of 2009. In Pitchfork, Jess Harvell wrote that it is of a piece with Sylvian's 21st-century music, and that the music makes it a marvel.