1984

1984 is the sixth studio album by English musician and composer Anthony Phillips, released in June 1981 on RCA Records. The album marks a change in musical style for Phillips as it is synthesiser-oriented compared to most of his previous albums which focused on more folk and acoustic music. After the music had been recorded, Phillips named the album after George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Background In June 1980, at the time of the release of Private Parts & Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion, the second in his Private Parts & Pieces album series, Phillips was still under contract with the US-based independent label Passport Records but without one in the UK as his deal with Arista Records had come to an end with the release of Sides in 1979. During this time he was considering ideas for his next studio album; one that particularly interested him the most was a recording which would combine classical-influenced synthesizer sounds with mechanical rock rhythms. He wished to incorporate a rhythm throughout in an effort to avoid the composition having a "background music" feel, and, as he recalled, a take on being reminded by record companies at the time that music had to have a rhythm to it, so he thought of such an album but "disguise it with some classical bits on top". One source of inspiration to write in this style originated when Phillips added two synthesisers to his collection two years prior, the Polymoog and ARP 2600, but felt he had not used them effectively on Sides. An album with both featured as the main instruments became attractive to him; looking back on the project, it "was actually a challenge". One reason was because of the difficulty of keeping the oscillator on the ARP 2600 in tune to produce a sound he desired, resulting in the instrument sounding "flat" in some sections. Writing Phillips originally planned to present 1984 as three instrumental pieces, one of which was a Polymoog piece from the Sides recording sessions that was left unused. A second featured a 12-string guitar that was also left off. He then considered using them to produce a "quick instrumental album", but the project grew after he persuaded his manager, Tony Smith, that it was the right time to make an instrumental album with a large scale piece of music because he had wished to do one since his first album, The Geese & the Ghost (1977).