Ivory II

Illusory come from Athens, Greece.The band was originally founded in 1992 by two friends who used to jam on top of their building roof.First name that popped in was Blessed Death”, which was dropped a bit later.“Ivory Tower”… that was more like it.Thus, like good wine “in the process”, “Ivory Tower” was maturing nicely, obtaining a better taste by the day, the month, the year.Numerous line-up changes happened through the years.The band was rehearsing, composing and playing at various Rock clubs and bars in the Athenian area.The basic concept was to recreate a truly phenomenal story.To re-record their promo-album, to turn it into a fresh founding, ultra-complete professional feature. They began recording, adding new ideas, painting a totally different landscape. Then, when the songs were recorded the best possible way and their concept was ready for some serious mixing and mastering, the boys decided to send to one of the most experienced teams in doing so. The only problem was the name of the band.Some years ago the “Ivories” discovered there was a German band called “Ivory Tower”, thus it was going to be extra hard to continue with their name, should they wanted to pursue a professional edge to their musical way.Brainstorming led to the name “Illusory” was sounded the best solution at the time and still does.The band decided to name their debut “The Ivory Tower”, which sounded completely logical and consequential to their lives and works so far.

This CD brings together selections from Emerald Web's recordings Nocturne and Lights of the Ivory Plains, creating a delicate balance of musical atmospheres. It flows from the haunting melodies of bass flute and Celtic harp to the intricate, rhythmic permutations of digital synthesizers to the timbral diversity of the Lyricon wind–driven synthesizer paired with the Japanese shakuhachi flute. With this music, Emerald Web combines a series of evocative, musical spaces into a graceful, unified whole.

Emerald Web is Bob Stohl and Kat Epple, who perform in concert and produce music for a variety of applications, including film and television soundtracks, dance, and planetarium shows, in addition to sound recordings.

Anthony Phillips has turned his Private Parts & Pieces into a cottage industry, with Ivory Moon being the sixth in this series and the first to feature Phillips exclusively on the piano. The album, subtitled "Piano Pieces 1971-1985," includes two sections of music first written for an earlier work, Masquerade, which presumably dates from 1971. All of the pieces, however, were recorded in 1985 at Englewood Studios in London. The songs have an intimate and spontaneous quality, as if Phillips was tinkling the ivories in your own home. And yet, as a solo pianist Phillips is merely adequate, prone to sentimentality and occasionally ham-handed flourishes. In lieu of his earlier Private Parts & Pieces, Ivory Moon is easily eclipsed. more…