Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of Gemini - Pieces for Piano, a brand new album by Ant.

Gemini - Pieces for Piano was recorded between October 2022 and October 2025 and features what Ant describes as the best of the keyboard compositions he has written since the release of his previous solo piano album Soirée in 1999.  The title of the album comes from a piece that Ant wrote for the celebrated pianist Martha Argerich, who premiered the work in duet form in 2018.  Gemini - Pieces for Piano includes Ant's solo version of the track.  

Gemini - Pieces for Piano is due for release on 10th April 2026 as a 2 CD set in a digipak and is available to pre-order now from Cherry Red and Amazon.

Following the successful release of the tribute album A Light on the Hill in 2022, The Ant Band (a musical collective from Germany) have now announced the release of their new album project From Genesis To Reimagination, which is more than just a complete re-recording of the Genesis debut album from 1969. 

It will be released digitally and on CD in 3-panel fold-out cardboard digisleeve on 13th February (in the UK: 20th February). A vinyl version (ultra clear vinyl, 140 g) will also be available later, on 13th March (in the UK: 20th March).  Ant has provided the liner notes for the album.

The CD (with a playing time of 61:23) follows the originally planned track listing for From Genesis To Revelation from the very first 1968 master tape, comprising 15 songs and nine instrumental interludes, including the three songs 'Build Me a Mountain', 'Image Blown Out' and 'Visions of Angels' which did not make the final release. Additionally, there is a special six-minute-long version of 'A Place to Call My Own'.  The LP (with a playing time of 44:25) contains the usual 13 songs and eight interludes in the order of the original album.  

From Genesis To Reimagination is available to pre-order now from Bandcamp and is also available to pre-order from Burning Shed in the UK on CD and LP.

The 16th International Piano Days Festival which will take place in Bad Wildungen, Germany in February 2026 will include a programme of Ant's piano works performed by pianist Vera Osina under the title of "Ivory Moon".

From the Festival site: "The internationally acclaimed pianist Vera Osina hails from Kazan, Russia, where she graduated with top honours from the music school for gifted children and the conservatory.  Now living in Germany, she performs internationally and has particioated in the ARD Competition, among other events.  Exclusively for the Bad Wildungen Festival, she has put together a programme of colourful and romantic piano compositions by the English composer Anthony Phillips".

The programme of piano pieces to be performed will include a selection from the albums Ivory Moon and Soirée along with some other pieces like Autumnal from the first Private Parts & Pieces album.

The concert will take place in the Wandelhalle, Bad Wildungen, Germany on Sunday 22nd February 2026 as a matinee performance at 11:30 am CET.  Please be aware that Ant himself will not be performing at this event.

More information about the Festival (in German) can be found here and tickets for the concert can be obtained here.

With thanks to Gereon Schoplick for passing on the information about the concert.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of an Expanded and Re-mastered Edition of Radio Clyde.

In order to promote the release of his second solo album Wise After The Event in 1978, Ant travelled to various locations in both Europe and the UK to give radio and press interviews.  For the UK radio interviews on this promo tour, Ant took a guitar with him with a view to performing one or two songs live in the studio and this arrangement was taken further with the offer from the Glasgow-based Radio Clyde to record an hour-long session of songs and instrumental pieces for later broadcast.  Whilst variable quality off-air recordings of the show subsequently circulated amongst fans, the discovery of a copy of the session in Ant's archives afforded the opportunity for an official CD release in 2003.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a 2 CD Expanded and Re-mastered Edition of Sail The World.

In 1993 Ant was commissioned to write and record the music for ITV's televised coverage of the Whitbread Round The World Yacht Race, which was broadcast between September 1993 and June 1994.  A CD of Ant's music for the programme was subsequently released to tie-in with the conclusion of the Race, with a second edition of the album appearing in 2010 that included three bonus tracks and updated mixes of a number of the pieces.

A review of the Expanded & Remastered Edition has now been published on Velvet Thunder.

Private Parts & Pieces IX - XI - a four disc deluxe set which gathered together three albums in the Private Parts & Pieces series (Dragonfly Dreams, Soirée and City of Dreams) - was released in 2018 as part of the Esoteric Recordings re-issue series of Ant's back catalogue.  The set also included Private Parts & Extra Pieces III, an 18-track 55 minute CD which featured a carefully curated collection of previously unreleased material designed to complement the music on the three albums.  An illustrated booklet with detailed notes and essay chronicling the recording of each of the albums was also included.

The tracks on the extra CD include an acoustic instrumental version of Roads In Between, some previously unheard tracks recorded in collaboration with Quique Berro Garcia and two Movements of the extended piece Piano Drama.

Private Parts & Pieces IX - XI has been out of print for some time and a new pressing of the set is now available to order from Cherry Red and Amazon.