This startingly beautiful album is a collaboration with poet, Anna Le. It is a collection of nine poems, which Anna Le recites to Manzanera’s original compositions, with four bonus tracks.
The project was seeded two years ago, when Phil and Anna had a chance encounter at Gavin Martin’s ‘Talking Musical Revolutions’, with this particular evening being dedicated to the life and work of Jimi Hendrix. It was Charles Shaar Murray, music writer and Hendrix’s biographer, who, along with the rest of those present, was captivated by Anna’s Jimi poem and turned to Phil ……’you should set that to music’ he said…..
Charles Shaar Murray writes in the album foreward:
“….and lo and behold..he’s done just that. (He) has framed a whole heaping handful of AnnaLe’s verse in a staggering variety of musical settings….”
AnnaLe’s powerful verse, ranges from specific homages to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Scratch Perry and Stevie Wonder, to sensual personal musings on ‘Lego Limbs’, herself as a “mixed Caribbean kebab” in ‘ My Nth Entities’ and the realities of ‘The American/British Dream’.
Tracklisting is:
ALL THE WHILE
CALI’S CAUTIONERY TALE
MY NTH ENTITIES
JIMI
LEGO LIMBS
THE AMERICAN/BRITISH DREAM
MOUNTAIN TOP DREAMING
SCRATCH
VOWEL PLAY
Bonus tracks:
SOS
JIMI REPRISE
THE WONDER OF WONDER
MUSIC ALL THE WHILE
The CD is accompanied by a stunning, vibrantly illustrated book of AnnaLe’s poems.