Produced by Sylvian with Steve Nye, it was his first full-length release after the break-up of his band Japan in December 1982. AllMusic called the album "an eclectic affair fusing funk, jazz, and ambient." 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.
Release
The album peaked at no.4 in the UK, the highest chart position of Sylvian's career to date, 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. 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 . 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 80's 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.
Critical reception
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."
