"In the Golden Hour" - Anthony Phillips' new album : Private Parts & Pieces XII: The Golden Hour. Reviewed by Alan Hewitt.

I admit that the announcement of this album took me completely by surprise. Gone are the days when it would be TWR/The Pavilion announcing the arrival of a new album by Ant. Anyway, The Golden Hour is upon us. The twelfth in the marvellous Private Parts & Pieces series, what does this one have in store for us?
Let's see…

The Golden Hour is what medics refer to as the most important time in which to get a patient to treatment and with the world in the state that it is in these days, the more musical treatment we can get, the better!

And immediately we are back in the glorious musical world for which Ant is justly famed; an acoustic guitar suite: Wychmore Hill Suite in four glorious parts. This is a worthy successor to the Arboretum Suite and the New England Suite. Shimmering and scintillating guitar work with a hint of gypsy rhythms thrown in - wonderful!

Twilight Of A Diva showcases the other side of Ant, a pianist of rare taste and skill, a slow and melancholy waltz this one evokes another time and place whilst High Flight takes us on an ethereal journey to the stars with shimmering synth and keyboard work uniting in a twilight dreamscape as only Ant can create. Sarabande Noir features the combined talents of Ant and Quique Berro Garcia and it is a joy to hear another performance from these masters of acoustic guitar. Truly remarkable work here from both musicians. Kathryn Downes is a traditional Folk piece reworked here for piano by Ant to good effect. The album’s title track is next and it lives up to its title in being a totally delicious golden slice of vintage acoustic work. No one wrings the notes out of an acoustic guitar quite like Ant and it is really difficult for me (because I am biased and damn proud of it) to try and remain objective about music which means so much to me, so what the hell, this one, simply put is: brilliant but way too short!

Hour Glass takes us back to the simple piano fare whilst Roads In Between is that rarity from Ant, a vocal track which, if the sonic evidence is anything to go by, has it's roots back at the time of PP & P IV. Ant is not the greatest vocalist but that doesn't matter when the music fits the voice so well as it does here.

Benediction, like its title is a short musical blessing before we come to another truly remarkable piece: Soliloquy For Sylvie which combines the talents of Ant and Quique again, this time complementing each other with Ant on keyboards and Quique on guitar.

Rushlight, like it's namesake, burns all too brightly, and too quickly whilst New World evokes the first sighting of terrae incognita with Cirrus Clouds (the title of the next track) hovering above.

Under The Southern Stars is another bold and bright piano piece whilst Sea Drift showcases another acoustic vignette which again is irritatingly too short!

Night Spectre features those famous backwards synth stabs which Ant used to such good effect on the Scottish Suite all those years ago. Is this an outtake I wonder?

Mean Streets is an altogether more upbeat synth and drum box (?) piece which would not have been out of place on Slow Waves Soft Stars whilst Sky Diving is completely mistitled with its oriental synth rhythms.

Summer’s Lease takes us back to the piano again with a wistful and evocative piece leading us to the final track: His Final Bow. Not sure if this is a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story or something much more personal to Ant? Either way, a suitably enigmatic way to close an album.

There you have it, the twelfth Private Parts & Pieces album. It is amazing to think that even after all these years music of such quality can be found in an archive which has brought so much delight to Ant’s fans. That some of this music may be over thirty years old…or perhaps even older and has had to wait until now to be heard is quite astonishing but it all adds up to a Golden Hour of listening for Ant’s fans.