Anthony Phillips – Recording Compendium, Part 8: 2012 – 2023

Part 8: Strings Of Light / The Golden Hour | 2012 – 2024

Last update: 14/08/2024 | back to part 7 | Overview

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After finishing his work on the solo album City Of Dreams, Anthony Phillips is already back on Atmosphere Library projects in the second half of the year. With Chris White he produces some material for Cinematic Drama and with Samuel Bohn he works out the complete material for Documentary Atmospheres. Ant also contributes to The Fantastic And The Wonderful. And for the first time he is working together with Chris White and Richard Dutnall for the publisher 9 Lives Music – project name: The Competition Toolkit!

The next library commissions continue seamlessly in 2013. For Universal Trailer Series, he produced a track together with Andrew Skeet, Andrew Britton and David Goldsmith for the project Psychological Thriller. He also produces some vocal numbers again with Chris White and Lettie Maclean for the Atmosphere project The Summer Soundtrack. For Documentary Science, Ant teams up again with Samuel Bohn, and for Chappell Publishing, he records the bulk of guitar tracks for their Pure Guitar project, also tying in Chris White and his old friend Enrique Berro Garcia as co-writers for some tracks. Four tracks from this will be released next year on the career-spanning 5CD box set Harvest Of The Heart: An Anthology, which marks the beginning of Anthony Phillips’ new label deal with Esoteric Recordings.

A new joint Atmosphere Library project with Andrew Skeet is also being tackled: Cinematic Stories.

In 2014, Ant is again contributing to Chappell Publishing for the projects A Little European Story and Influenced Guitar. And together with Samuel Bohn, he produces music for the Atmosphere project The Picturehouse Suite on the one hand and for the BBC Production music publishing company’s projects The Battlefield Of Europe and Drones Plus 2 on the other.

In 2015, he takes on the role of narrator for the Italian prog-rock project Ellesmere for their album Les Châteaux De La Loire. And he participates in a song by John Hackett on his album Another Life, which also features Steve Hackett.

Ant also has library commissions coming up again for Chappell Publishing for their Night Visions and Drones And Atmospheres projects.

For the 25th anniversary of the Italian Genesis fanzine Dusk, Ant records a piece that processes different variations of the Genesis song Dusk.

In 2016 Anthony Phillips is again producing music with Samuel Bohn for the project Trailer FX & Sound Design: Ambient Intros by See-Verlag. He is also guest musician on assignment for Anna Madsen’s album Efflorescence.

Ant’s new label Cherry Red Records is interested in his collaborative songs with Lettie Maclean. Two songs the two produced in 2011 for Library Projects will be reworked and released as download singles.

For a song on the album Why The Sea Is Salt by the band The Gift, Anthony Phillips is brought in for guest contributions alongside Steve Hackett.

And for an elaborate crowdfunding book project by a photographer friend, Ant contributes two of his own pieces as well as a co-production with Steve Hackett for the accompanying CD Harmony For Elephants.

2017 marks the start of a whole series of library works that he composes and produces together with his engineer and musician James Collins, who has been working with him for two years now. The first of these are pieces for Music House’s Science And Technology project, followed by the complete Drones 2.0 project for Addictive Tracks – their debut for this new publisher.

Together with the Italian pianist Gabriele Baldocci, Ant is also composing the piece Gemini for two pianos, which will be premiered live in early 2018 by Baldocci and the pianist Martha Argerich, to whom the piece is dedicated.

The two continue seamlessly with the projects Natural World for KPM and Exotic Journeys 2 for Addictive Tracks, for which Martin Robertson is also involved for some contributions. Further joint library projects for Atmosphere will follow: the new Humans series, for which four chapters will be worked out entirely by the two of them, as well as the two complete issues 6 and 7 of the Travelogues series.

On the aforementioned double CD Deconstructing Classics by with cover versions and bonus material by the Italian band Algebra, Ant can also be heard on one song as a 12-string guitarist and harpsichord player alongside Steve Hackett.

In December, Anthony Phillips starts recording his next solo album, which will again be a pure guitar album. In addition to many new compositions, an old piece from 1971 is also recorded for the first time during this session..

Ant interrupts the recordings for his solo album. Together with James Collins he again produces “Addictive Tracks” for their project Action Trailers, and with Andrew Skeet he creates the two orchestral library works Compelling Drama for the Universal Trailer Series and Film Scores: Drama & Romance for Atmosphere.

Finally, in April 2019, the last four and most difficult pieces for Ant will be recorded for the upcoming double album Strings Of Light, including another piece from 1971.

For promotional purposes, Ant’s label is producing videos of three tracks from the new album, which will be recorded as a live session in Ant’s home studio to draw attention to the release on youtube.com in the autumn.

We continue with Phillips/Collins works for the library projects Quirky Drama, Dark Fashion, Results (including collaborations with Lettie Maclean and Chris White) and The Arts: Minimalism by Addictive Tracks.

Three new library publishers are coming into focus in 2020. For Felt Music, Ant produces the project In The Midst Of Life with Samuel Bohn, the project Shadowy Tension with James Collins and a track for Late Night City Grooves (featuring Lettie Maclean). For Spark!, Phillips and Collins are going into the race with the EP A Temporary State Of Mind and some jingles for the project You. They also contribute to West One Music’s Tension Toolkit: Mysterious & Atmospheric and Podcast Series: Sci-Fi Projects. Ant also produced a track for Universal Publishing Music’s High Fashion project.

In the same year, two 2011 library songs by Ant and Lettie are unearthed, reworked and released as 2-track download singles.

Phillips and Collins are also busy with library work in 2021: there are joint tracks for Quirky Designs by Addictive Tracks, Guitar Waves by library publisher Abaco, the EP The Longest Journey, the album Infinity, a joint track on Beat The Future for the Spark! label and the complete project Drones And Atmospheres: Guitars & Loops by Chappell. With Ethereal Moods for Spark!, Ant also manages a complete project on his own.

For Atmosphere, Ant records the acoustic guitar-based album Acoustic Guitar Beds. And for Spark! he produces the EPs Drum Grooves, Uniqueand Synesthesia Soundscapes with James Collins and Minimal Emotive Underscores on his own.

With the surprising discovery of the lost 12-string guitar pieces for the 19-minute Wychmore Hill Suite from 1986, the two duo pieces Sarabande Noir and Soliloquy For Sylvie with Enrique Berro Garcia from July 1994 and Roads In Between (vocal version), which probably dates from the late 90s, the idea of ‘crafting’ a Private Parts & Pieces album in the classical style matures. To do this, they sought out all kinds of previously unused material from different creative phases, which were created within the last 20 years but not exactly dated: three short 6-string guitar pieces, two synth numbers with James Collins and five with Ant solo, five pieces on piano and grand piano that were created as part of his recordings for the piano album that had been planned since 2020 and finally the latest 12-string guitar work, the title track of the twelfth Private Parts & Pieces album: The Golden Hour!

Ant and James continue to produce library music in the new year, this time with Prism – Atmospheric Beds and Pulse Beds for Cavendish Music and a single track for Chakra’s Spark! release. In addition, there are debut works for the Sonoton publishing house and associated sub-labels with Cinematic Ambient, Human Emotions, Astral Motion and Nano-Tech. Docudrama: Night Scenes was produced for Addictive, a rock track for China Dolls: Sunseeker for Cavendish’s alternative label and a suitable title for Tension Toolkit: Orchestral Vol. 2 for the soundtrack label.

The two continue to work hard in 2024, first with three tracks for New Discoveries and the complete Cinematic Guitars from Addictive and the six complete releases Northern Lights, The Dark Side Of The Moon, Dark Vista, Happy-Go-Lucky, Evolving Moment and Beauty Vista for the new Spark!‘sister labels’ Astro and Bish Bash Bosh. This is followed by Stellar Echoes and Quantum Technology (4 tracks with Ant) produced for Sonoton. For Cavendish’s sub-label compilations, there are a total of eight titles for Dreamweaver: Chillout Pick n’ Mix Vol. 2, Rural Resonances: Cinematic Pastoral Themes Vol. 1, Inner Light Ensemble: Music for Meditation Vol. 1 and Vol. 3 and Sonic Science: Science Soundtracks – Serious. The Cavendish main label gets the complete Awaken: Meditative Beds and Meditative Beds II (with Ant’s participation on three pieces).

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Author: Steffen Gerlach
Editor: Christian Gerhardts
Visual adaption: Helmut Janisch
Special Thanks: Jonathan Dann (for corrections and additional info)