Peter Phippen
Interviews/Promo
The Dunn County News - December 2, 2002
Phippen's 'Night Song' soothes, satisfies
By Barbara Lyon, News Editor
It all started with a basket of bamboo penny whistles. "I was shopping with my wife Julie when I saw them," Peter Phippen recalls."I couldn't resist picking one up and playing it."
Thus started a love affair with ethnic flutes from all over the world. It also sparked a complete change in direction for a man who started his musical career playing bass in a country-western band at the age of 12, proceeding into adulthood as a member of several show bands, including the rock group Airkraft.
Playing a variety of flutes, Phippen has just released "Night Song," his third CD as a recording artist for Canyon Records. Aptly named, its spare, haunting melodies, all composed by Phippen, evoke dreamscape images of fading twilight and gentle slumber under a full moon.
The full, round tones of his Japanese Shakuhachi produce a different mood from the almost plaintive wail of the transverse alto bamboo flute. Higher and lighter, the Native American flute he plays in "Lullabye" cradles the listener in a soothing blanket of sound.
A poet as well as a composer, he observes that one cannot be separated from the other. "Poetry entwines with my music and each of my recordings are time capsules, reflecting where I am in my life. This third CD is very different from the other two. It's about growth and life changes.
"Night Song" also differs from his previous two CDs in that it is a totally solo effort. Both "Book of Dreams" and "Echoes of the Past" have included accompaniment by other musicians, giving them a much different focus and feel.
In "Book of Dreams," for example, flutes take the place of the voices in a lively new take on Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair." Conversely, "Echoes of the Past," a finalist in the Crossroads Music Awards 2000, has been described in Ethnotempos magazine as having a more "Zen" feeling and includes vocals by singer Deborah Hopkins as well as drums and synthesizer.
Dr. Richard Payne, a retired physician and noted ethnic flute expert, is considered the world's leading authority on prehistoric American flutes. "Five minutes after we met, he started testing me on what I know about world flutes," Phippen recalls about the man he considers to be both his mentor and one of his dearest friends. "I used the Papago flute that he gave me on 'Night Song.' And I dedicated the song 'Papago Twilight' to him."
Payne most recently appeared with Phippen at an annual workshop in Texas sponsored by the Dallas County Community College District. The pair shared the stage with, among others, renowned flute maker and performer Butch Hall and Dr. Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl, professor of flute/music theory at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
Locally, Phippen's most recent appearance onstage was in the Firefly Arts Company's 2002 production of "Firefly Dreams" at the Mabel Tainter Theater where he used his artistry to create a musical mood of mystery and wonder.
He has performed at Eau Claire's Festival in the Pines and UW-Eau Claire's Music on the Mall Summer Series and has served as an artist-in-residence in Eau Claire elementary schools.
About his success, Phippen observes, "The flute is leading me, not my ego leading the flute. It could all crash tomorrow.
What is his fantasy for the future? "Someday, after I'm dead, all I want is for people to look back at the work and say 'He could play. He was good.' Only the work will reveal that--over time."
For more information about Phippen, check out www.canyonrecords.com