Adam Philips, on Balance

Peter Philips was the most famous English composer of his time, and only Byrd, a generation older, had more compositions published. Much of Philips’s life was spent on the Continent, where he wrote music of intricate, text-conscious colour, both deeply expressive and architecturally powerful. His motets and anthems, whether celebratory, meditative or dramatic, embrace the widest range of feeling and texture. The much-admired Sarum Consort’s disc All the Queen’s Men (8572582) was praised for its ‘energy and aplomb’. (American Record Guide)

2007. Debut release by Stephen Philips on the Hypnos label "proper" following his album Dagboken on the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint a couple of years earlier.

Into the Dark is a beautifully restrained and elegant piece of ambient music reminiscent of Neroli by Brian Eno, and Entering Twilight by James Johnson. Moving patterns of sounds, varying from bell-like chimes to deep rumbles vaguely-ethnic rattles, interact and react to create an always-shifting atmosphere, a sense of "place" and mood while avoiding ambient music cliches.

Adam Douglas has left behind two studio albums, one live album and a long series of concerts around the country and the beach. On March 5, it's finally time for his third full - length, a midlife analysis named "Better Angels". And on that occasion, of course, there will also be a tour!