SLOW DANCE

His magnum opus, no doubt. A work in which all his creativity focused. If Antonio Vivaldi was still alive in our days, I believe he would write music of the same kind. We all know Anthony Phillips as a refined and romantic guitarist who created his own guitar universe, existed in that universe himself since 1970 (one might say Anthony Phillips was the spirit of Trespass, and I wouldn't dispute) until 1988 (Tarka), and returned to it after Slow Dance. Because Slow Dance contains nothing Trespass- or The Geese & The Ghost-like. And I dare to assume that only Slow Dance is genuine Anthony Phillips at his full capacity. Twentieth century's Vivaldi who seriously outgrew his predecessor. Phillips fully expressed himself as a musician in this incredible, profound, majestic, encyclopedic work. Perhaps a musicologist of 22nd or 23rd century answering a question 'what was Anthony Phillips' will first mention not The Geese & The Ghost, even not Back To The Pavilion or Twelve, but Slow Dance. This album makes Phillips a protagonist of progressive music, a figure in prog as major as Banks, Emerson, Fripp or Wakeman. And not surprisingly, with Slow Dance the artist conquered a peak which it was impossible to keep at. Guess that's why Slow Dance didn't open a new chapter in his career. A genuine marvel occurs once. Phillips of 1990s and later is again good-old Phillips of Trespass, The Geese & The Ghost and Private Parts & Pieces, beautiful but habitual. From time to time, only occasional weak echoes of Slow Dance can be heard in his later works (for example, in The Sky Road from 1994 and Seventh Heaven from 2012). What was and what should never be...