TOM PHILIPS / GAVIN BRYARS / FRED ORTON - Irma - An Opera by Tom Phillips LP Kraut Editions Mego

Editions Mego

the [I Didn't Wanna be a] Soldier EP was released [almost a year after being recorded in the summer of 1983] on the Radical Change label and was played by the great John Peel on his radio show

an isolation both lonely and sweet

these twelve acoustic guitar and vocal tracks offer a glimpse of Kankawa's far ranging humanity

and a continuous presence in the music’s true home of Southwest Virginia

TOM PHILIPS / GAVIN BRYARS / FRED ORTON - Irma - An Opera by Tom Phillips LP Kraut Editions MegoOn composing Tom Phillips' Irma: In February and March of 1977, for Brian Enos Obscure Records, I made a version of Irma. The following notes on the piece arise out of that involvement and try to show how the piece can be made into a performance state. Irma is a curious score it is printed on a single sheet 50cms x 50cms. The notation consists of fragments from Toms continuing treatment of the victorian novel by W. H. Mallock, which he calls A