Phil Manzanera celebrates 50 year solo career with 11-disc collection

Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera celebrates solo career with epic 50 Years Of Music boxset collection.

Since joining Roxy Music in 1972, Phil Manzanera has been an art-household name, however, he has also had a stellar solo career that has run parallel with the group’s activities. He said: “This boxset gives the listener an idea of what I’ve been up to in my parallel solo musical world away from Roxy for the last 50 years. It always has been about working together with friends to achieve the common goal of music ‘Sin Fronteras’.”

This extensive and celebratory collection pulls together all of Phil Manzanera’s 10 solo albums in one place, featuring collaborators such as Brian Eno, David Gilmour, Neil and Tim Finn, Andy Mackay, Robert Wyatt, Eddie Jobson, and John Wetton, making 50 Years of Music play like his own  personal musical  version of modern popular music.

Sonic Alchemy

After Roxy’s first wave, in 1975 Phil Manzanera released his debut solo album, Diamond Head. Featuring some of the finest musicians in London, including Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno and Paul Thompson, the album is a fine period portrait of 70’s eccentric eclecticism. 1977’s follow up Listen Now was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 and deals in subtle sonic alchemy, once again Eno guested alongside the likes of Kevin Godley and Lol Crème.

1978’s K-Scope was released during Roxy Music’s late 70s hiatus, and the spirit of the age is reflected in sharper, hipper recordings and working with Tim and Neil Finn (Split Enz/Crowded House) it pushes the music slightly toward new wave. High points include the Split Enz brothers-led Hot Spot and Slow Motion TV.

Primitive Guitars, from 1982, is an instrumental album that reflects Phil’s Latin and psychedelic roots, as well as having one foot firmly on the dance floor.

Exotic And Melodic

In Southern Cross (1990) he began to explore his Cuban childhood and reunited with Tim Finn on vocals. While 1999’s Vozero continued this theme it became the first of ‘the white album trilogy’ with Phil singing as well as songwriting, making a more personal statement.

2004’s 6PM marries grooves, ambience, and pop in a pleasing post millennial mixture and features long-time friend and collaborator Robert Wyatt, as well as Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. While the Roxy Music reunion of the early 2000s reintroduced Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson into Manzanera’s work, old friends Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno joined too completing his trilogy with  2005’s 50 Minutes Later.

Firebird VII contains a quartet of technically gifted international musicians from a wide spectrum of genres, featuring acclaimed Polish jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer, Philharmonic bassist Yaron Stavi from Israel and British experimental percussion maestro Charles Hayward, he of This Heat fame (with whom Phil played in pre-Roxy years with Quiet Sun). The Sound of Blue from 2015, is a warm, emotional album, guitars both proggy and jerkily post-punk, sexy, exotic and melodic.

Impossible Guitars

All 10 albums appear across 10 CDs with rare and previously unreleased tracks. There is also a bonus disc, Rare Two, which should be of huge interest as a follow-up to 2000’s Rare One, a collection of never-before-released demos, radio sessions, and rare European singles.

Rare Twois a personally curated collection of 10 unreleased songs, demos, live tracks, and two rarities from Phil’s archive. Of enormous interest will be the Demo PM 1, the early version of Pink Floyd’s One Slip that Phil wrote with his long-term friend and collaborator David Gilmour. A live version of Impossible Guitars from Roxy Music’s Frejus gig in 1982 can be enjoyed here as well.

Manzanera continues to influence and inspire not only his peers, but current and future generations. Out of the blue in 2011, the title track of K-Scope was sampled by Kanye West and Jay Z for their global success, No Church In The Wild.  The song was also used in the Baz Luhrmann adaptation of The Great Gatsby and in multiple TV commercials. With this one sample, Manzanera earned more money than in 50 years with Roxy Music. As a token of his thanks, Phil’s own version of No Church In The Wild graces The Sound Of Blue.

Musical Journey

50 Years of Music is beautifully presented in a 10″x10″ hard-slip case with a tasteful matt finish and spot varnish, with three wallets holding the eleven CDs featuring original artwork throughout. Overseen by Phil Manzanera, the albums have been remastered by Alchemy Mastering’s Barry Grint at London’s renowned Air Studios.

A 100-page book accompanies this extraordinary musical journey. With photos, handwritten notes, tape boxes, scribbles, clippings, alternate artwork, lyrics, compositions, thoughts as well as the original album booklets, the hardback book is intended to enlighten and amuse.

Phil Manzanera – 50 Years of Music:
Disc One: Diamond Head (1975)

Frontera
Diamond Head
Big Day
The Flex
Same Time Next Week
Miss Shapiro
East Of Echo
Lagrima
Alma
Bonus Tracks
Carhumba (previously released on 2011 re-issue)
Corazon Y Alma (previously released on 2011 re-issue)

Disc Two: Listen Now (801) (1977)

Listen Now
Flight 19
Island
Law and Order
Rude Awakening
Que?
City Of Light
Initial Speed
Postcard Love
That Falling Feeling
Bonus Tracks
Blue Gray Uniform (Demo @ PSL Studios) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)
Remote Control (Demo @ PSL Studios Psychedelic Version) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)
Island (Secret Fingers Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)
Listen Now (Velvet Season and The Hearts of Gold Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)

Disc Three: K-Scope (1978)

Remote Control
Cuban Crisis
Hot Spot
Numbers
Slow Motion TV
Gone Fishing
N-Shift
Walking Through Heavens Door
You Are Here
Bonus Tracks
Remote Control (Live 801 Tour 1977) (previously available on 2000 reissue)
It Don’t Matter To Me (Demo @ PSL Studios Manzanera) (previously available on 2000 reissue)
Out Of The Blue (Live 801 Tour 1977) (previously available on 2000 reissue)
Walking Through Heaven’s Door (ZSOU Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)

Disc Four: Primitive Guitars (1982)

Criollo
Caracus
La Nueva Ola
Botaga
Ritmo de Los Angeles
Europe 701
Impossible Guitar
Big Dome
Europe 80-1
Bonus Tracks
Impossible Guitars (Theo Parrish Feat. Duminie Deporres Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)
Caracas (Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionigi Mental Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)
Criollo (Kenji Takimi and Tomoki Kanda ‘Being Borings’ Remix) (previously only available on 2019 Japanese re-issue)
Big Dome (Cos_Mes Remix) (previously only available on 2015 Japanese re-issue)

Disc Five: Southern Cross (1990)

Million Reason Why
Tambor
The Great Leveller
Astrud
Southern Cross (Instrumental)
Blood Brothers
Guantanamera
The Rich and The Poor
Dance Break This Trance
Verde
Fridel
Vanceremos
Bonus Tracks
Southern Cross (Live in Havana Moncada Manzanera Live at the Karl Marx)
(Previously Unreleased)
Astrud (Live In Havana Moncada Manzanera Live at the Karl Marx) (Previously Unreleased)

Disc Six: Vozero (1999)

Vozero
Mystic Moon
Verdadero
Tuesday
Rayo De Bala
The Art Of Conversation
Vida
Golden Sun
Mundo Con Paz
Hymn
La Vida Moderna
Tropical

Disc Seven: 6PM (2004)

Broken Dreams
Green Spikey Cactus
Love Devotion
Wish You Well
6PM
Waiting For The Sun To Shine
Manzra
Cissbury Ring
Porlock
Shoreline
Always You
Sacred Days
Bonus Track
For You (previously only available on 2016 Japanese reissue)

Disc Eight: 50 Minutes Later (2005)

Revolution
Technicolor UFO
That’s All I know
50 Minutos Mas Trade
Desaparecido
Dusza
One Step
Swimming
Bible Black
Til The End Of The Line
Enotonik Bible Black (Mainstream Version)

Disc Nine: Firebird V11 (2008)

Fortunately I Had One With Me
Cartagena
Firebird
Mexican Hat
Firebird V11
A Few Minutes
After Magritte
Bonus Track
Cartagena (Live at Ronnie Scott’s) (Previously Unreleased)

Disc Ten: The Sound Of Blue (2015)

Magdelena
1960 Caracas feat Sónia Bernado
The Sound Of Blue
Rose Mullion Head
Halmstad
Tramuntana
High Atlas
Mi Casa
In Conversation with Andy Mackay
No Church In The Wild feat Sónia Bernado
Bonus Track
High Atlas (Live in Tokyo with Hotei) (Previously Unreleased)

Disc Eleven: The Manzanera Archives RARE TWO 

Que Fera Fera demo with Nfaly Kouyarte  (Previously Unreleased)
Spanish (Previously Unreleased)
The Unknown Zone (previously only available as a download 2009)
Demo PM 1 (One Slip) Pink Floyd (Previously Unreleased)
Tre Amore (Previously Unreleased)
Chan Chan (previously only available on Japan Live CD)
Otra Vuelta (Previously Unreleased)
All the While (Live at Hospital Club, London) (Previously Unreleased)
Impossible Guitars (Live at Frejus with Roxy Music) (Previously Unreleased)
Bala de Plata (Live at The CCK Buenos Aires)  (Previously Unreleased)
East of Asteroid (Live at Ronnie Scott’s) (Previously Unreleased)
El Vlaje Demo (Previously Unreleased)

To pre-order Phil Manzanera – 50 Years of Music click here 

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