Sylver (part 0)

Sylver is a Belgian dance/pop, or more precisely EDM : Electro Dance music, group.

The original band members were Wout Van Dessel (born October 19, 1974), the keyboarding and songwriter, and Silvy De Bie (born January 4, 1981), the vocalist from 2000 to 2014 and who forced the band into a hiatus upon her departure as she decided to focus on her solo career.

I discovered the band while checking items a seller was proposing on ebay, as I tried to save on shipping fees for another item that I wanted. Not knowing the band, I went and listened to a few songs on youtube, and fell for Silvy’s melodious voice which suits greatly the synth rhytmes.

Sylver have released 5 studio albums: (first links leads to wiki, the second to my blog)

• Chances (2001)- ranked #2 in Belgium, their highest ranking album in any country and which had 6 singles released in 2000-2002. Turn the tide, from this album, actually reached the very top position #1, of which Living my life reached number 5 (again, In Belgium). my Chances review
• Little things (2003)  - dropped to 7^th position in Belgium, but still rather successful with its 4 singles
• Nighttime calls (2004) – their least successful album at #23^rd position, is explained by less melodious songs, and somewhat less dancy… it had only 3 singles
• Crossroads (2006) – renewed with success, and reached # 9 ; here, they covered Abba’s Lay all your love on me (misspelled ONE me, on my edition) and which was a nice cover, although I prefer Erasure’s version… this album had 3 singles as well.
• Sacrifice (2009), is the most hard to find currently (I couldn’t even get its most basic edition!), and which ranked 3 in Belgium, their second best performance in chart positions, 9 years after their first album. Sacrifice had 5 associated singles.

Regi Penxten, better known for his work in the band Milk Inc. has produced these albums, either partially, sharing the task with Wout, or entierely. He sometimes had other roles such as composing music or lyrics, playing an instrument, or mixing. He's a bit of a hidden band member, really...   

There are two compilation albums :

• Best of- the hit collection 2001-2007 (2007) and 
• Decade – the very best of Sylver (2010) each contained 1 unreleased track.

The band released 27 singles, the highest ranking in their home Belgian country was Turn the Tide (#1) back in 2000. 4 of these singles weren’t included on any album :

Loneley Christmas in 2003, between albums Little Things, and Nighttime calls.

Turn the tide (2010 version),  Stop feeling sorry and City of angles were released, respectively, in 2010+2011 & 2012, after the album Sacrifice.

Some of their live performances have been uploaded to youtube but never released as DVD’s.