Peter Phippen: Ghosts (digital)

Reviews

1. 

   Reviews Editor – June 7, 2023

   From Higher Plain Music

   Ancient flutes and a mystical reverb brings you one of 2023’s most introspective albums.
   What does Peter Phippen sound like? Native American flute. Laid bare.

   I often showcase solo piano music here on Higher Plain Music but I’ve never showcased an album entirely dedicated to the flute. Today that changes with Peter Phippen’s Ghosts – a captivating and mysterious album that explores the Native American flute.

   Across the album’s 11 tracks, Peter leaves his flute totally unaccompanied except for one thing. There is a long drawn-out reverb that leaves a ghostly hollow hue to the flute between the various melodies and notes. The songs are written in a way that leaves punctuated gaps like a shaman calling in spirits. The effect of the reverb here is profound because the echoing resonance of the flute’s notes ring out so loudly.

   Each track snakes and weaves its way around the flute. Some like ‘Inside the Underworld’ focus on the instruments’ lower register and evoke a curiosity from within. Others like ‘Summerwind Mansion’ cascade down notes with empty longing and a sensitive grounded feeling. Whilst most tracks are melodic, some take the flute in more abstract directions. ‘Feral Cries’ focuses on a lamenting vibrato as if the song itself is struggling to breathe. That same vibrato is used more romantically in the long notes of ‘Entangled Forevermore’. ‘She Does Not Sleep’ feels more playful, like a love letter to nature itself.

   Regardless of what Peter Phippen does, there is an overwhelming sense of spiritual occasion with Ghosts. It is such a pure album with a dedicated single vision and Peter nails it with every track. It is designed to be played at night, in low light and to let your imagination take you away. Peter Phippen says that his traditional flutes “hold otherworldly powers within”. On the evidence of Ghosts, I wholeheartedly agree. -Simon Smith

2. 

   Reviews Editor – April 11, 2023

   From Exposé
   Joint review of Ghosts and Galaxies
   The two releases at hand center around flutist Peter Phippen, who has nearly two dozen albums across three decades. Phippen has researched the performance techniques and history of a variety of traditional flutes worldwide and throughout history, specializing in an unaccompanied, experiential style of improvisation. Such is the nature of his latest release Ghosts, his third for Projekt records, preceded by 2022’s Into the Ancient. The sounds of his solo flute improvisations are at once mysterious, graceful, refined, and captivating, the sound surrounding the listener like a warm blanket on a cold starlit night from the top of a precipice, the waves of shimmering sonic beauty wafting across the sky. The mesmerizing sound of the solo melodic flute has an additional cosmic power to gently calm the listener, bringing one full circle into a spiritual direction should the listener be open to it, the echoing sounds and improvised melodies calling forth unknown spirits — or Ghosts. There are eleven pieces that wander freely, most in the four to seven minute range. The astute listener will notice a psychological change that occurs as each piece unfolds — it’s just the nature of the instrument and Phippen’s style of celestial communication.

   With Galaxies, Phippen teams up with other musicians to deliver a similar cosmic unfolding, containing four longer pieces — three of them break the fifteen minute mark — adding some sonic variety to the mix, even though it’s still Phippen’s flutes (shakuhachi) that are central to the overall effort. A fifth track is a five minute radio edit of the third, “Triangulum,” which at full length clocks in at a little over fifteen minutes. The additional instrumentation on Galaxies comes via Rahbi Crawford, playing crystal singing bowls — their presence is subtle but an important element in the overall fabric of each piece — and Ivar Lunde Jr., who weaves in synthesized soundscapes and additional sonic elements that can be heard in the background of every piece. Again, the result here is a captivating, mesmerizing, and thoroughly experiential listen that provides additional dimensions and mysticism to the immediacy of Phippen’s flute improvisations. -Peter Thelen

3. 

   Reviews Editor – February 17, 2023

   From Rockerilla
   For Peter Phippen some instruments possess a special spiritual energy. Like his collection of flutes from remote eras and mysterious places. On Ghosts, which follows the 2022 collection Into the Ancient, the American musician puts together eleven tracks built exclusively with the transcendental timbres of the flutes. “In the natural world,” writes Peter, “there are many unexplained phenomena that some would call unnatural. For me it is impossible not to sense a presence in some ancient musical instruments [which] can act as a conduit into the spiritual realm or a gateway into the divine.” NEW AGE. -Roberto Mandolini

   Per Peter Phippen alcuni strumenti possiedono un’energia spirituale speciale. Come la sua collezione di flauti provenienti da ere remote e luoghi misteriosi. Su Ghosts, che segue di pochi mesi la raccolta del 2022 Into the Ancient, il musicista americano mette insieme undici tracce costruite esclusivamente con i timbri trascendentale dei flauti. “Nel mondo natural,” scrive Peter, “ci sono molti fenomeni inspiegabili che alcuni definirebbero innaturali. Per me è impossibile non avvertire una presenza in alcuni antichi strumenti musicali [che] possono agire come un condotto verso il regno spirituale o una porta verso il divino.” NEW AGE. -Roberto Mandolini