THE GEESE AND THE GHOST

I have to confess that initially I have bought this vinyl just because of the nice sleeve design. I knew that Phillips was a former Genesis and in addition Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford are present in this album, so I had an idea of what I should have expected. But looking at the names on the cover's back there was the former Renaissance Viv McAuliffe to make me curious enough to spend the actual equivalent of 10$.

There's a 1 minute introduction featuring a technique that Ant will use a lot of times (maybe too much) in his following albums: tapes played backward and without any satanic message...we are gentlemen!

The first real song features Phil Collins at vocals and is one of the few songs on which I like his voice that's something I usually can't stand with. "Which Way The Wind Blows" is able to evocate an English country landscape even to a non-British as me.

That's just a song, but the following "Henry - Portraits from Tudor's time" despite its 12 minutes is quite an epic. Opened by a sort of fanfare it goes acoustic and the overdubbed (I suppose) guitars sound like deadly bells....well this is more or less what's arguable from the subtracks titles: "Fanfare", "Lute's chorus" and so on. The good is that each part of the suite is able to transmit exactly the meaning of its title.

Viv McAuliffe in a duet with Phil Collins closes the A side. "God If I Saw Her Now" is just an acoustic love song, but it's completely immerse in the medieval and fantastic atmosphere created by the previous track.

The B side is opened by another short (46 secs) instrumental intro, then the long title track gives us another touch of old England. It passes from acoustic and classic guitar to church organ and back several times. A great instrumental but the frequent pauses between sections make it a patchwork of short pieces instead of a suite.

A piano piece allows Ant to show his skill on this instrument. It's the only track on which Anthony sings, too. The closer is led by piano, too. The chords progression is similar to the closer of the A side.

3.5 stars but is a so good debut that I round it to 4, also because it's still the best solo album released by Phillips, at least between the ones which I have bought.