It’s a unique development for a collection of various bits and pieces to not only coalesce into a single context but also become a successful series of albums, and that’s exactly what happened when former GENESIS guitarist Anthony Phillips took his 1978 project "Private Parts & Pieces" further to be met with praise and affection and become highly successful. Still, when the veteran delivered the platters array’s last volume in 2012, his fans found it hard to believe “City Of Dreams” would signal the line’s finale – after all, with Ant’s perfectionism ending “PP&P” with a record number eleven felt strange – so May 31st will see the series’ new chapter follow 2019’s "Strings Of Light" into the sunset.
How did it come to exist. This is what Phillips’ archivist Jonathan Dann has to say.
“The addition of a new volume to the ‘Private Parts & Pieces’ series came about by chance and was not something that Anthony had previously considered: he says, ‘I’d hitherto always thought that the first eleven would remain bereft of a twelfth man!” The impetus for the album came when I played Anthony some tracks that I’d found that he had recorded in the past, which he had largely forgotten or had no memory of. He was particularly interested in four guitar pieces (which have ended up on the album as the opening ‘Wychmore Hill Suite,’ and I subsequently sent him three further tracks I’d found that he also liked.
“After reviewing these initial tracks, Anthony told me that he felt we had the basis for a new album in the series and he then approached Mark Powell at Esoteric Recordings with the idea of this new album. Mark gave the green light to the project, and from then on Anthony and I reviewed more recent tracks that he had written and recorded until we had a final selection of pieces. Anthony subsequently worked on the tracks with his recording engineer James Collins before enlisting the services of Steven W Tayler to master the album and provide the final finishing touches.”
A great addition to what has already been almost immaculate.
Private Parts & Pieces XII:
The Golden Hour
1. Wychmore Hill Suite I: Country Mile
2. Wychmore Hill Suite II: Ring of Steel
3. Wychmore Hill Suite III: Peaceful Land
4. Wychmore Hill Suite IV: Jack The Lad
5. Twilight of a Diva
6. High Flight
7. Sarabande Noir
8. Kathryn Downes Trad.
9. The Golden Hour
10. Hour Glass
11. Roads In Between (vocal version)
12. Benediction
13. Soliloquy for Sylvie
14. Rushlight
15. New World
16. Cirrus
17. Under The Southern Stars
18. Sea Drift
19. Night Spectre
20. Mean Streets
21. Sky Diving
22. Summer’s Lease
23. His Final Bow
