Guitarist Phil Manzanera and saxophonist Andy Mackay (Roxy Music) are set to release a new live album, AM PM Soho Live, recorded in an Intimate venue in Soho with special guest and original Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson. The saxophone and guitar-heavy, ambient set captures the instrumental interplay and unique textural sounds for which Manzanera and Mackay have come to be known for. Of AM PM, Phil Manzanera commented, “During the covid lockdowns I was working on songs with Tim Finn (Split Enz,Crowded House) 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 categorize except to say it’s really a musical expression of our two brains still interacting 50 years on”. AM PM is co-produced, engineered and mixed by Mike Boddy (Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, The Fall) and recorded at Phil Manzanera’s Gallery Studios, and 5DB, London. The album features Manzanera on guitars, Andy Mackay on saxes, Anna Phoebe on violin, Seth Scott on flute, George Goode on tuba, Paul Thompson on drums, Yazz Ahmed on flugelhorn and Mike Boddy on bass/programming/keyboards.
