This detailed special about the Archive Collection Volume I & Volume II would not exist without the liner notes by Jonathan Dann. These have been partially incorporated into the following text. This could have been cited neatly, as in the case of a master's thesis, with immense effort. This would not have helped the flow of reading. Therefore, a MAXIMUM BIG THANK YOU is conveyed to Jonathan Dann at this prominent point - for his tireless archive work and his great accompanying texts - Thank you, Jonathan Dann!
How should one imagine Anthony Phillips' attic, cellar and all the other rooms? There are probably thousands of tapes stacked up to the ceiling from the days when digital recordings were still a science fiction dream of unworldly computer nerds. Anthony Phillips and Jonathan Dann spend a not inconsiderable part of their lives discovering, listening through, selecting, baking (!), digitising and mixing these mountains of tapes and delighting the constantly craving fan with "new old" recordings every year with Private-Parts-And-Pieces-And-Missing-Links-Extra-Bonus-Special-Limited-Release-Editions.
Phillips' third solo album Private Parts & Pieces from 1978 was basically the first Archive Collection, which was the beginning of a series of LPs, CDs and later extended re-releases with unreleased recordings, outtakes, demos and curiosities.
The idea of a release consisting exclusively of archive material really took off at the time when some lost tapes were discovered in the summer of 1995. Among them was a copy of the demos Ant and Mike Rutherford had recorded with Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel on 23 March 1967 (Try A Little Sadness, She Is Beautiful [later The Serpent], That's Me, Listen On Five, Patricia [later: In Hiding], Don't Want You Back). This historic tape famously came into the possession of Jonathan King at the time and led to the formation of Genesis. A second tape with the first, "string-and-horn-free" mix of From Genesis To Revelation also resurfaced. Some tracks from these recovered recordings saw the light of day on the retrospective Genesis release Archive 1967-75 in 1998.
Besides many tracks that had a clear Genesis reference, there was of course also a lot of material that could be attributed to Anthony himself.
Jonathan Dann about the Archive Collection project:
One particular challenge associated with archive recordings is accessing material recorded on now obsolete technology which require the original equipment to play them so that they can be transferred to a digital format. For recording at his home studio at Send Barns, Ant had initially used a single stereo Revox tape recorder which he later supplemented with a second similar machine so that some basic mul- ti-track recordings could be made. In late 1974 Ant acquired his first true multi-track recording facilities in the shape of the two TEAC four track machines using dbx noise reduction which had been bought with the advance supplied by Charisma Records to facili- tate the initial recording of The Geese and The Ghost.
This equipment would remain the basis of his studio until late 1979 when he upgraded to an Allen & Heath Brenell Mini-8, an 8-track recorder that used one-inch tape. Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford also had these tape machines in their home studios and the initial tracks for Phil’s albums Face Value and Hello I Must Be Going as well as Tony’s The Fugitive were all recorded on this format. The basic tracks for 1984 and Invisible Men were also recorded on the Mini 8, although the recording of both albums were completed at Atmosphere Studios in London on 24-track equipment. The Brenell would remain Ant’s
multi-track recorder until late 1987 when it was replaced with a Fostex 16-track machine.
In 1998, The Archive Collection Volume One was released, the first CD that actually went by the name Archive. It contained 28 pieces that were discovered during various excavations. A second EP was added to the first CD, containing five more pieces.
This second disc of The Archive Collection Volume One has now been expanded from EP length to a full CD with a selection of previously unreleased tracks and variations. These date back to the oldest existing demo recording Ant was involved in: Pennsylvania Flickhouse was recorded in the summer of 1966 by the "pre-Genesis band" Anon. For the Archive Volume I & II box set, the opportunity was taken to be able to use the original multi-track master tapes and to rework some tracks through audio restoration and present them in an improved form: The Geese and The Ghost (Kiddies Mix 1975), Lucy Will (Demo 1978) and Holy Deadlock (Vocal Mix 1978) were remixed and partly extended. In the course of this, some recording dates and track information could also be updated.
Compiling and releasing music recorded over several years has already proved effective for Anthony Phillips on the first, second and fourth Private Parts And Pieces albums. And when it came time to compile the second CD in the Missing Links series (The Sky Road), the suggestion was made to "put on it" additional previously unreleased material and also some selected archive pieces.
For this, Ant chose two excerpts from the original 1972 demo of Field of Eternity and a recording of The Beggar And The Thief, which he had completed in the summer of 1973 with his friends Ronnie Gunn and David Thomas.
The original cover artwork for Volume I was quite simple, featuring a circular notation with two stylised tapes in the centre. A 2007 reissue of the CD in Japan (as a cardsleeve in mini-LP format) interestingly had a completely different artwork, showing a detail from the Peter Cross painting The Field of the Cloth of Gold.
DISC ONE:
The Archive Collection Volume One: Disc One
01. Back to Pluto (1987)DISC TWO:
The Archive Collection Volume One: Disc Two
Tracks 6-18 previously unreleased
01. KIP PJ (1978)
For an in-depth look at all the tracks on the 2022 version of Archive Collection Volume One, check out a separate article at this link.
In 2004, Archive Collection Volume II continued the third CD series in Ant's discography (alongside Private Parts & Pieces and Missing Links), which began in 1998, and is more homogeneous than Volume One - both in terms of sound quality and in the allocation to the individual creative periods. Volume II contains 45 tracks (some of which are integrated into a three-part and an eight-part suite) on the two discs, which, according to the artist, should be listened to in two sessions rather than in a single pass. The reissue now released is identical in content to the 2004 first release, for which there is already a separate review from 2004.
The cover artwork for Volume II was done by Peter Cross this time, although not in the form of a painting as on previous albums. It shows a photo of the Faerie Sewing Box, a three-dimensional work of art by Peter Cross from 1990 with all kinds of materials on the subject of sewing and embroidery and some puns on the same subject. This motif eventually also became the cover of the new 5CD box. It should also be mentioned that in 2007 in Japan, for the CD edition in the mini-LP sleeve, the cover was changed again and only showed a section of the Faerie Sewing Box.
DISC THREE:
Archive Collection Volume Two:Disc One
01. Guitar Song (demo 1973)DISC FOUR:
Archive Collection Volume Two: Disc Two
01. Highland Fling (library piece 1979)We have also published a Track By Track article for Volume II, which you can find at this link.
But the Archive Collection Volume I & II is much more than a re-release extended by 13 pieces. The real sensation is on the added fifth CD. A release of the legendary demos of the musical project Masquerade from the early 80s had been discussed for a long time. Ant's former record company Voiceprint had expressed interest and even listed Masquerade as an upcoming album title back in the late 90s. However, Anthony Phillips and his then cohort Richard Scott were sceptical about this: would what had always been intended for a musical rather than an album project work as a CD release? And so the pieces gathered dust in a box or drawer somewhere for decades.
In 2008, the original 8-track masters of the demos Ant had written for the first version of the musical in 1980 were rediscovered. Unfortunately, it was discovered that five of the demos, including the original versions of Moon, Sun and Tara's Theme, no longer existed, as these tapes were reused by Ant when he reworked them for another project in 1982.
On the fifth CD of the re-release of the Archive Collection Volume I & II, demo versions from phase 1 (January 1980) and phase 2 (April-June 1981) of the Masquerade project can now be heard. Since the original multi-track master for Craw's demo no longer exists, a remixed instrumental version of the piece was chosen, recorded as one of the potential pieces for the musical Alice in November 1983. It is completely inexplicable why Anthony Phillips withheld the extremely impressive Masquerade demos from us for so long. All the more pleasing that this has now finally happened.
The only Masquerade demo with vocals included on Archive Collection Volume I & II is Moon's Lament for The Sun, sung by Lindsey Moore, who died far too young.
And here we come to a not insignificant point of criticism, because of the Masquerade demo recordings, which were made from April to June 1981, there exists a great, highly interesting, ultra rare bootleg entitled Masquerade Demos, which could be acquired years ago with a lot of luck at the now (in some areas) rare record fairs. Unlike the now officially released versions, the 1981 recordings all feature vocals (presumably by Richard Scott and Lindsey Moore) with one exception (Overture). In an interview, Ant explicitly names Richard Scott as the singer on the song Magic Carpet. On several tracks Richard Scott can also be identified almost without a doubt as the singer. Anthony Phillips is also listed as the singer on the bootleg, but this does not stand up to intensive listening scrutiny. Why were the Masquerade demos from both recording phases not released as an archive double album? Very sad and almost annoying.
DISC FIVE:
The Masquerade Tapes - previously unreleased
01. Overture
The background of the Masquerade project as well as the individual review of the titles can be found in a separate article at this link.
All in all:
Even for those Anthony Phillips fans who already own the earlier Archive releases, the 5CD box set is worth purchasing, as it contains the grandiose bonus CD with the Masquerade demos in addition to the extended second CD of the first Archive release. It is to be hoped and assumed that Anthony Phillips and his archivist Jonathan Dann will delight us with further rarities in the years to come. And then please also with the sung Masquerade demos and the Alice pieces.
Archive Collection Volume I & II is available via CherryRed.
Author: Bernd Vormwald
Edited by Helmut Janisch and Christian Gerhardts
Visuals: Helmut Janisch (based on the orignal artworks)
Remaster Edition 2008 - Double-CD with Bonus tracks.
Remastered, contains rare "Silver Song" with Phil Collins on Vocals.
Review available
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