ANTHONY PHILLIPS

To be honest I'm not too enamoured of the original A-side. The fake mediaevalism of the fourteen- minute "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times" (an instrumental piece) is sandwiched between two briefer songs with lead vocals by Phil Collins. The songs themselves (strongly reminiscent of acoustic early Genesis) are pleasant enough, although they verge on the sentimental. But "Henry" can only be called fifty percent succesful. Although its more lyrical passages, with loads of twelve string, are charming, its opening fanfare and closing hymn sound terribly naive and its battle scene fails to pack a punch. I can't get rid of the impression Steve Hackett is better at expressing real drama in music.

The B-side, on the other hand, is a different story. If the entire album were like this, I'd gladly award it four or perhaps even five stars. The title track is another extended piece, nearly sixteen minutes, and this time there's never a dull moment. Phillips does what he's really good at: creating dreamlike, mainly acoustic, neo-impressionist music, and as he doesn't try to force a narrative on us this time, the music simply flows and carries the listener along. The contributions by oboe, cor anglais and cello players are delightful. I also love the brief song "Collections", with vocal by Phillips himself, and "Sleepfall", the utterly romantic instrumental that concludes the album.

Don't hesitate to get a copy of the two-disc Voiceprint re-release from 2008. This comes with a highly informative, well-designed twenty page booklet, and the original album sounds clearer than ever: those gorgeous twelve string guitars really pour out of the speakers! The second disc is filled mainly with demos and basic tracks, but all Genesis fans will be cheered by the four minute "Silver Song", written in 1969 as a farewell to John Silver (Genesis' original drummer) but not recorded until 1973. It features Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, and believe me - it's a thing of great beauty. Sort of like an honorary Genesis song!

Trespass is my favorite Genesis album in large part due to the spirit Ant Phillips brought to the band. It was as much about the friendships of these young men and their coming of age as it was about his musical accomplishment, which was of course formidable. As great as Genesis was, they lost something when Ant stepped away for health reasons. I can sympathize completely as I've always been uncomfortable playing even the small gigs we used to get, I can't imagine the pressure of a touring group---takes a special kind of constitution. Many feel the resulting replacement by Steve Hackett made Genesis better but I've never bought that---it made them different but I'm not sure it made them better. I would have loved to hear what Nursery Cryme would have sounded like with Phillips. In any case, the material on Geese began around and shortly after the time Ant left Genesis in 1970. The years in between were spent writing, recording, taking classes, and getting in as much time with partner Mike Rutherford as he could...obviously Mike was a busy guy. Then, after finishing this project over years of painstaking work, the record company decided it was not commercial enough and refused to release it. Another year passed without a suitor and Ant was already moving on to other things when American label Passport agreed to release it, and so the project became reality in the spring of 1977.

The Geese and the Ghost is not however Trespass-part 2 as it lacks the great voice of Peter Gabriel and the rock power of Genesis. Then again it isn't trying to compete, this is not a rock album by any stretch. The album is built around two 15-minute suites with a few shorter tracks and interludes surrounding them. As mentioned the music is the near literal translation of the fantastic artwork featuring stories and imagery of castles, maidens, and period countrysides. There are few examples of bucolic themed acoustic bliss that quite match what Phillips has done here, but the famous "Principe di un Giorno" album by the Italian band Celeste may come the closest in some ways. Perhaps the English artist Willowglass' first album is another although that one does rock a bit more as I recall. Here soft, incredibly sharp and clean acoustic guitars are layered and adorned with other stringed instruments along with all manner of lush adornments: flutes, recorders, bells, glocks, oboe, cellos, and of course keyboards. Often the mellotrons will be rising and floating in the background with strummed acoustic guitar in one track and lead acoustic in another, occasionally there will be some piano or organ. All of the tracks concentrate on pleasing melody and mostly a soothing experience, even if some of the themes deal with pain. Phil Collins contributes some vocals as does the late Viv McCauliffe who has the voice of an angel. But I most appreciate Ant's modest vocals on the closing track "Collections" as it brings his essence to the work more than Collins voice which one associates with Genesis hits. This is a gorgeous pastoral near-masterpiece that will thrill anyone who loves that kind of mellow prog with acoustic guitars and mellotron. It's an album I appreciate much more than "Voyage of the Acolyte" and much more than post-Gabriel Genesis, with the exception perhaps of Wind and Wuthering.

If you don't own this album, you ARE doing yourself a grave disservice, as this is the closest to perfection that New Age ever got in terms of musical engagement...and furthermore the best thing that Anthony Phillips has done since the late 70's. Get this!

5 stars.

Contemporary, easily digest without having to sacrifice the complexity, modern form of classical music disguised in a prog suit, this album makes all wannabe-s look stupid. The arrangement, dynamic, melody and musicianship is so good without having to show off. This album shows us that in music world, mental ability is far more powerful and could create more impact over one's mind than physical ability.

5 stars, no less. Essential piece for all music lover.

The rhythms and melodies are somewhat simple on this album but Phillips does produce melodies. Some keyboardists would be content to simply churn out nothing but electronic noise, but being a gifted melodician, Phillips churns out great electronic melodies. In fact, being relatively limited on the keyboards compared to his guitar abilities almost forces him to focus on strong melodies as opposed to flashy work. The result is an endlessly listenable, almost always enjoyable electronic feast for the ears. The re-release has a second disc of related material.

On most of this album, Anthony plays the instruments. He varies between guitar and piano, mostly. He plays a wide variety of styles: there are short Chopin sound-alikes and wild flaminco guitar epics. Throughout the album, one really starts to understand where Phillip's muse really lies. It's hard to describe the music on an album like this. It's pretty, memorable, and occasionally even beautiful.

After further commercial indifference folowing his second album, Anthony Phillips decided to try a different approach. He decided it was time to simplify and to toughen up his approach. He ditched the intricate arrangements of Wise After the Event. He sat down and wrote a few harder songs that emphasized his electric guitar playing, a few simple ballads, and then wrote a series of more intricate and detailed songs for the second side. Some habits die old. The result was Sides an album that may be Anthony's hardest sounding album. It is one of his last fully song oriented albums and one of his last albums that could be classified as rock. After this album, Anthony would mostly stick to instrumental work.

It's not hard to see why. Though I thinks this album is good and enjoy most of it, it feels like Anthony was a bit lost here. The songs, while still catchy, seem poorer, less intricate, less thought over. It seems like he was rushing things a bit here and not spending a lot of time on some of the songs. The ballads, which you'd think would be a high point given Anthony's softer nature, tend to wisp away into the wind. Um and Aagh is an interesting song, as it's definitely harder edged for Anthony. The harder edged songs seem like a last gasp towards rock and roll for a musician who, despite his talent, never seemed destined to be a rock and roller or a rock and roll star. They're good and interesting, especially existing as they do as the last glimmers of rock and roll in Anthony's music.

The instrumentals on the second half show that Anthony's heart still lay in intricate composed pieces as opposed to pure songwriting. The balance between great songwriting and intricate arrangements was achieved on Wise After the Event but for some reason Anthony was either unwilling or unable to combine the two with this album. So we have one side of an album that's filled with catchy, but simple tunes and another side that's filled with intricate, but slightly unmemorable tunes. Strange album, but fascinating because of that.