FIELD DAY

OK! Another great piece of music by one of the most underrated, yet awsome artists. I'm talking about Mr.Phillips, of course. I've only got two of his records (The Geese & the Ghost, being the other one), and they're both amazing! I had to try hard to get them. I found TG&TG by lucky chance last year, and I found this one (by lucky chance, also) on a recent trip to the US (I live in Argentina, so it's a long trip one cannot do regularly!) at Virgin Records Megatsore (My God, I'd never seen so many good records together in one store before!). Well, ok. Let's talk about "Field day". This is a double-disc album for acustic guitars, mainly (he uses 12-string, 6-string, 10-string guitars, charangas, etc.). This guy is the master of all acustic guitars! This is not just a record he did with these acustic instruments, improvizing, just to show his abilities. These are very well-thought and structured pieces, which he had written some time before recording the album between 2004-5 (Most of them were written in 2001, some in 2002-3 and others in 2004. There are a couple of tracks which came out of old material from a lot of years before, like "Nocturne"-1975). There is a main theme which gets repeated through the album: on "Voyage out", "Half way out" and "Out and beyond", and also (with some variations) on "Swoon", "Chasing the light" and "Tearaway". So, I won't go song by song 'cos that's impossible. They're 61 tracks for acustic guitar! You have to listen to them, there's no way I can explain the greatness of each of these tracks! All I can say is that they're played with passion, feeling, softness. There are some melancholic, sad ones, energetic and experimental ones, and some other soft and lively ones. It brings back some the old GENESIS (from "Tresspass"), it crosses different genres, some with an old Argentinian "guitarreada" style. So, as you can see Ant has a lot of musical knowledge. One thing I want to point out is that this won't bore you for one second! The tracks go by really fast. You feel that you play the record from track 1 and, in a matter of 5 minutes, it's already track 27, or something! And the whole album passes by in what seems like 20 minutes, when it's acually 2 hours! Another thing is that I don't think this is really SYMPHONIC prog, I think this is more like prog folk of some sort. You'll hear some interesting sounds on the main theme. Some kind of synth effect creating this very pleasent ambient. So, what else can I say? This record is the greatest piece of acustic guitar you can get! Try hard to find it, and, if can't do it in your country, travel the world 'till you get it! When you do so, just go outside or look through the window and watch the sunset as Ant's strings fill your ears with delight! Note: Anthony Phillips is one of the greatest musicians alive and this is THE BEST acustic guitar set in the whole world! Buy it, no matter how high the price is!!!

PS:Pay special attention to "Concerto de Álvarez" and the whole "Parlour Suite". Enjoy yourselves!!!

LONG LIVE PROG!