Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera, two co-founders of Roxy Music, have teamed up once again for the AM PM album due in October.
Manzanera and Mackay formed Roxy Music in London in 1970 and released their first album ‘Roxy Music’ in 1972. When the final Roxy Music album ‘Avalon’ was released in 1982, the band was done to a three piece with just Manzanera, Mackay and co-founder Bryan Ferry remaining.
Roxy Music reformed for the 50th Anniversary tour for North America and the UK in 2022 with original drummer Paul Thompson on that tour.
Manzanera and Mackay released the album ‘Crack The Whip’ together in 1988 and ‘Up In Smoke’ in 1989. Before that they had a band called The Explorers for one album in 1985.
Of ‘AM PM’ Phil Manzanera says, “During the UK’s 2020/2021 Covid Lockdowns I was working on songs with Tim Finn but I also had an urge to do some spontaneous instrumental music. I rang Andy Mackay and asked if he would be interested in working on an album together, he was, and thus the AM PM album was started. After the discipline of working on song structures it was very liberating to just try and find solutions to unstructured bits of music. It’s like starting out on a journey with no idea of where to go and then ending the journey in a beautiful location. The music has turned out to be nothing like we could have pre-written and difficult to categorise except to say it’s really a musical expression of our two brains still interacting 50 years on. The listener can decide for themselves which pieces resonate for them. Instrumental music is open to the listener’s interpretation, allowing them to create their own stories and that’s why it can be truly transformative and magical, and sometimes unsettling.
After the Autumn 2022 Roxy 50th celebration tour Andy and I went into the studio and completed the album with the help of engineer/producer Mike Boddy and the drumming of Paul Thompson on four tracks. We were all feeling match-fit after the successful Roxy tour and preceding rehearsal period, so it was a good moment to capture our ‘heightened’ musicality in a more free context. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help and craftsmanship of Mike Boddy as engineer and co-producer. The album also features soloing from violinist Ana Phoebe, Flugelhorn suprema Yazz Ahmed , experimental flautist Seth Scott and George Goode ,a very talented and young Tuba player from Dulwich College.
AM PM is a continuation of my passion for instrumental music and the freedom it brings me, where the creative possibilities can seem endless and without limits”.
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