Anthony Phillips

Anthony Edwin "Ant" Phillips (December 23, 1951, London, England) is a British musician best known for being one of the founding members of the progressive rock band Genesis, in which he played guitar and gave it that characteristic sound that the group developed during its most creative and experimental decade. Phillips left the band in 1970, after the release of their second album, Trespass, because of his stage fright and on medical advice after pneumonia that complicated his health. He is known for his work with twelve-string guitars and his influence can be seen in the early work of Genesis which continued after his departure from the band with Steve Hackett taking his place.

Genesis' first album after Phillips' departure (Nursery Cryme) includes two songs left over from Phillips' days with the group: "The Musical Box" (which Phillips composed in 1969 and initially titled 'Fa Sostenido' and then 'Manipulation' and then changed its name again to the definitive one) and 'The Fountain of Salmacis';.

After leaving Genesis, Phillips studied classical music (especially classical guitar and also piano) collaborating on recordings by Harry Williamson, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins and Camel, among others. His first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, was released in 1977. Made up of pastoral ballads and other full-length compositions, the album was released at the height of the rise of punk, and had no satisfactory sales although it later became a classic album of his career.

The following year, Phillips released his second album (Wise After the Event) and in 1979 his third, titled Sides. Although these two recordings had a more symphonic pop-rock orientation, they did not achieve much success either. Despite this, Phillips continued to work in parallel on more introspective albums such as his Privates Parts and Pieces series (the first volume of which was published together with Sides) and his successive volumes, released in the eighties and nineties.

In 1981, Phillips began writing new material with Andrew Latimer, leader of Camel, and was a featured guest on the English band's album The Single Factor. Two years later he released the album Invisible Men, much more pop-oriented than his previous works. Phillips said about this album that its recording was "terribly bad." due to the pressures of the record company, and that he finally gave up his attitude towards achieving commercial success in favor of more elaborate compositions in line with his time in Genesis.

In the middle of that decade he ventured for the first time into the so-called Library Music and new age sounds with his album Slow Waves, Soft Stars i> and producing musician Dennis Quinn on some of his early cassettes and CDs.

The nineties were his most prolific years and those that saw the release of his best albums from the Private Parts & Pieces, collaborating especially with the prominent Japanese musician Joji Hirota, without forgetting his return to recordings and live improvisations with the Argentine musician Guillermo Cazenave and a fleeting appearance on stage accompanying the choir of the Gaden monastery Shartse, as well as the production in Barcelona and through Cazenave of his only two official videos: From Genesis... to Revelation and The Meadows of Englewood, with images and clips of the album of the same name.

It is worth highlighting the contribution of archival material by Phillips himself for the first Genesis box set, Genesis Archive 1967-75, released in 1998.

The 2000s were a smooth continuation of his commissioned music for documentaries and advertising and the sporadic editions of new Private Parts & Pieces, highlighting the release of his guitar album Field Day, his guest appearance on Steve Hackett's album Out of the Tunnel's Mouth, the orchestration of his music for Seventh Heaven in collaboration with director Andrew Skeet, the edition of his first DVD for the reissue of The Meadows of Englewood, the publication of a biographical book written by the Italian journalist Mario Giammetti and the edition of his first Box-Set in 2015 after his new record contract with the Esoteric Records Label.

Currently said Label is reissuing the entire Phillips catalogue, adding unreleased and remastered material.

Discography

• The Geese And The Ghost (1977)
• Wise After The Event (1978)
• Sides (1979)
• Private Parts and Pieces (1979)
• Private Parts and Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion (1980)
• 1984 (1981)
• Private Parts and Pieces III: Antiques (1982, with Enrique Berro García)
• Invisible Men (1983)
• Private Parts and Pieces IV: A Catch at the Tables (1984)
• Harvest of the Heart (1985)
• Private Parts and Pieces V: Twelve (1985)
• Private Parts and Pieces VI: Ivory Moon (1986)
• Private Parts and Pieces VII: Soft Waves, Slow Stars (1987)
• Tarka (1988, with Harry Williamson)
• Missing Links One: Finger Painting (1989)
• Slow Dance (1990)
• Private Parts and Pieces VIII: New England (1992)
• Sail the World (1994)
• Missing Links Two: The Sky Road (1994)
• Gypsy Suite (1994, with Harry Williamson)
• The Living Room Concert (1995)

• Meadows of Englewood (1995, with Guillermo Cazenave)
• Anthology (1995)
• Private Parts and Pieces IX: Dragonfly Dreams (1996)
• Missing Links Three: Time and Tide (1997, with Joji Hirota)
• Legend (1997)
• Live Radio Sessions (1998, with Guillermo Cazenave)
• Archives Collection Volume One (1998)
• Legend (1999)
• Private Parts and Pieces X: Soirée (2000)
• Soft Vivace (2002)
• All Our Lives (double CD including Meadows of Englewood and The Live Radio Sessions) (2002)
• Radio Clyde (2003)
• Soundscapes (2003)
• Archive Collection Volume Two (2004)
• Field Day (2005)
• Missing Links Four: Pathways and Promenades (2009)
• Seventh Heaven (2010) with Andrew Skeet
• Ahead of the Field (2010)
• Private Parts and Pieces XI. City Of Dreams" (2012)
• The Meadows of Englewood XV Anniversary Edition, with Guillermo Carlos Cazenave (2013)
• Harvest of the Heart, Box-Set (2015)
• Strings of Light (2019)