Anthony Phillips & Harry Williamson’s Gypsy Suite is released in a new remastered and expanded edition.

Release date: Available now

Label: Esoteric Recordings/Cherry Red Records

Format: CD 

Anthony Phillips & Harry Williamson, in the 1970s, undertook a series of accomplished and striking musical collaborations, some of the results of which can be heard on this remastered and expanded edition of Gypsy Suite. By way of some background, Anthony Phillips is a musician and composer, who was one of the founding members of Genesis, and their guitarist up until 1970. His work with Genesis can be found to best effect on the album Trespass. An impressive solo career has followed, encompassing solo albums, collaborations with other artists, and television and film music. Harry Williamson is a musician, composer, producer, and interestingly also an inventor, his inventions including musical instruments.

Gypsy Suite, in this newly remastered and expanded edition, includes the 1978 demo version of the four-movement suite, which was originally co-written and developed between 1971 and 1975.  It was first released on CD in 1995. That release also included some original 1975 & 1976 demos from their collaborative work Tarka. This new edition includes all the above music and also the previously unreleased piano demo of Tarka Movement III: The Hunt, featuring Anthony Phillips on solo piano.  

Gypsy Suite

The music features Anthony Phillips on 12-String Guitar and Harry Williamson on 6-String Guitar. The first movement, First Light, has a lovely plaintive tone, that gently reveals itself, with both guitars offering up some beautifully melodic playing. The striking ability of the guitarists to leave spaces without losing momentum is particularly evident here. Movement II: Siesta has some quite wonderful weaving variations on a central theme, where the musicians skillfully build up captivating and multiple layers of sound. This movement has a very immersive feel to it. Movement III: Evening Circle has a conversational tonality, where the guitars exchange exquisite reverberating chords and notes. Harry Williamson in his 1994 notes, included in the booklet that accompanies the CD, describes Evening circle thus:

“Tales around the camp-fire. Colours: 

black, white and fiery crimson play in

rhythm across the listening faces while

the story-tellers each bring deeper

excitement with fear to the gathering.”

Movement IV: The Crystal Ball, clocking in at just over ten minutes, is dynamic and exciting, with a shimmering intensity created by the two guitar players, underpinned by the most mesmerising and agile of rhythms. A middle section is more contemplative and tender, succeeded by a joyous and exhilarating guitar coda. 

The four movements of the suite add up to a very significant musical achievement, that takes the listener through a variety of musical moods played with passion and inventiveness by two very creative guitarists. It deserves to be heard much more widely, making this new edition a very welcome release. 

The Tarka Demos

Inspired by the book Tarka The Otter, written by Harry Williamson’s father Henry Williamson, these early demos from 1975 and 1976, feature guitar, piano and other keyboards. Movement I: The Early Years, begins a more pastoral sensibility, where the guitars cascade guitar shapes that conjure up a sparkling mix of jazz and folk. It magically evolves into a piano led piece, that has a wonderful ebb and flow, leading back into the two guitars, providing an enchanting and lilting conclusion.

Movement II has three parts. Part A: Streams, River and Salmon Hunting, which delivers some atmospheric musical contrasts, where the guitars, piano and synth create a sweeping musical landscape, that illustrates in sound the beauty and power of the natural landscape. A fantastic piece of music. Part B: Dunes and Estuary, has a stately firmament, where the instruments delicately intertwine and echo around each other, with the shorter Part C: Moonfield – Postscript, providing a piano led conclusion that is both delightful and understated. 

The whole set is finished with Anthony Phillips’ previously unreleased solo piano reading of Movement III: the Hunt. Over an eight minute plus in length, we hear some appealing and affecting piano melodies, runs and fills, that are deeply absorbing and rewarding. An excellent bonus addition to the release.

This is a very well put together release, highlighting the work of two very fine musicians, at a creative peak, providing music that is both evocative and immersive. It is accompanied by a very fine booklet that sketches in the background to the music, including a new essay by Jonathan Dann.

You can find out more about Anthony Phillips & Harry Williamson here: Anthony Phillips Website / Facebook / Harry Williamson Website

You can find out more about Esoteric Recordings here: Esoteric Recordings Website

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