Hushed reverence greeted David Sylvian as he began a rare mini-tour of Britain in Manchester on Friday. Born in Kent but now resident in New England, the 49-year-old singer has amassed a distinctive portfolio of solo albums and esoteric collaborations since disbanding those glam-pop icons Japan in the early 1980s. He has dabbled in minimalism, improvisation, ambient electronica and musique concrète. But he has chiefly favoured the kind of refined avant-jazz ballads that made up the bulk of his Bridgewater Hall set.

Poised on a stool at the centre of a dimly lit stage, Sylvian still cut an elegant and androgynous figure. He played guitar and softly crooned songs culled from the past 25 years, backed by a three-piece band including his brother and frequent collaborator, the former Japan drummer Steve Jansen.

Apart from a pastel-shaded reworking of Ghosts, Sylvian pointedly ignored his Japan back catalogue. Instead he sprinkled the set with tracks from his much-admired early solo albums, Brilliant Trees and Secrets of the Beehive. Several opaque cuts from Snow Borne Sorrow, the album released in 2005 under his latest recording alias, Nine Horses, also made an appearance.

There were flashes of sublime beauty early in the show, notably the mournful country-tinged waltz It’ll Never Happen Again. But midway through this two-hour set, the unvarying pace and relentlessly low-voltage delivery began to grate, especially Sylvian’s remote and bloodless performance. Artfully poised introspection is one thing. A stifling lack of drama, sex, wit or concern for your semi-comatose audience is quite another.

Two decades ago, Sylvian was widely respected for chic, experimental, highbrow pop. But he appears still to be consumed by 1980s notions of good taste and cultural sophistication, which seem laughably bogus and limited today. Even for fans of po-faced and pretentious pop, myself included, this was an inexcusably tedious evening. Tour ends tonight at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

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