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Portrait in Extreme

by Phil Robson

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1.
2.
3.
So Many Bees 06:15
4.
5.
I've Got It 01:59
6.
New Turf 04:31
7.
Re-Valley 06:08
8.
The Masters 02:20
Sitting on my throne, I am the master, of everything you see and hear. Everything I say you must believe now, united in a state of fear. And now, you must follow, my plan, you little man. Everything is fake, so you must come and take, your place now. Oh yeah Lyrics/Music by Phil Robson copyright PRS/MCPS

about

Multi-award-winning, UK born guitarist/composer Phil Robson released this digital EP/Album 'Portrait in Extreme' on Lyte Records on March 25th, 2022. Having been a seminal figure on the London scene for many years, then in New York City from 2015 to 2020, Robson has been based in the enigmatic Irish countryside of County Roscommon since March 2020. In many ways, this self-produced and recorded collection of Robson's original compositions and soundscapes tells his story of living in very diverse places and circumstances between 2019 and 2021, as well as aspects of his life, work and loves as a whole. The music on the EP was compiled by Robson using conventional playing/recording techniques combined with the use of Ableton Live 11 software plus exciting drum loops provided by Ireland-based David Lyttle.

"Portrait In Extreme is an approachably avant-garde extended player that presents a thematic exploration of ‘extremity’ from the fertile musical mind of UK guitarist/composer Phil Robson. Recorded under the ‘extreme’ remote circumstances of late lockdown, the eight-track sequence strikes out into left-field musical directions (sometimes called ‘extreme’) and reflects on aspects of a necessarily ‘extreme’ itinerant life, one of mad leaps such as relocating from England to New York and playing with everyone from Dave Liebman to Barbra Streisand. As a Portrait In Extreme it is well-named for presenting sides of Phil Robson that we might be less familiar to those who might only have really seen him accompanying his partner the incomparable Irish jazz singer Christine Tobin.
It’s a lot of fun. What it is about this digital release that makes you listen up isn’t just the typically strong creative playing but its unpicking of conventional construction and composition in a restless sequence of stylistic experiments for guitar and electronics, with some stirring quasi-industrial drum loops from David Lyttle." London Jazz News

"Partly nurtured by lockdown, but definitely inspired by his new life amid the lakes and castles of the Republic of Ireland’s midlands, this is Robson as sharp and versatile as ever. One moment we’re spooked amid the nasty gnash and slash of ‘Rumours Abound, Energy Persists’, the next we’re beguiled by an acoustic Irish air, replete with Christine Tobin’s wordless vox on the aptly titled ‘New Turf’. Yet this modulates into a percussively kinetic skronk, as Robson’s New York years crash back into his current idyll. So it’s no surprise when a samba turns into seagulls on ‘Straight Story’ (no story’s ever straight with Robson) or on one of the songs of the year, ‘So Many Bees’, a long solo meditation, spins on its heels through wind chimes, a siren’s voice, an epic chord and, well, a host of bees. If that all sounds like too many handbrake turns at once, it’s Robson’ s gift to find what he calls ‘the fluidity of inter connectedness’, to discover the logic between polarities. Oh, yeah, and he still rocks."
Jazzwise Magazine **** review

Robson recalls Kurt Vonnegut, a resonant author for him who said, “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

credits

released March 25, 2022

Guitars, Electric Bass, Electronics plus Vocals/Lyrics (track 8) - Phil Robson.
Drums - David Lyttle (tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8);
Vocals – Christine Tobin (tracks 1, 6).

Recorded over the Autumn months of 2021 at Redwood Cottage, Callow, County Roscommon, Ireland by Phil Robson. Mixed by Phil Robson December 2021 - January 2022.
Mastered by Alex Bonney February 2022, London.
All compositions/lyrics by Phil Robson (copyright PRS/MCPS)
Drum loops provided by David Lyttle (except track 6 created by Phil Robson).
Produced by Phil Robson, Executive producer: David Lyttle

Thanks to:
Eddie Lee (for lending Phil his electric bass), David Lyttle, Alex Bonney, Christine Tobin (for her love, support and great voice), Benoît Delbecq, Jen Shyu, Nick Roth, Edel Meade, Steve Hamilton.

Special Thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland (An Chomhairle Ealaíon) whose music bursary award set this project in motion.

In memory of Phil Goodwin, who left us too early in February 2022.

To hear or buy more of Phil Robson's previous albums, please visit philrobson-whirlwind.bandcamp.com and babel-label.bandcamp.com and you can find the new duo album with David Lyttle 'IN2' at davidlyttle.bandcamp.com/album/in2

Phil Robson plays Case Guitars www.caseguitars.co.uk

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Phil Robson Frenchpark, Ireland

Multi award-winning Phil Robson is a UK born guitarist, composer & bandleader who was an integral part of the London and wider European music scene for many years. He relocated to New York City in 2015 where he lived for 5 years before moving to Ireland in 2020.
To hear/purchase Robson's previous albums, please visit philrobson-whirlwind.bandcamp.com or babel-label.bandcamp.com
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