It was not hard to be struck by Phil when we first met him - a tall, thin, gentle, rather enigmatic character with a distinctive hat which never left a hedge worth of hair that could easily be mistaken for steel wool in a room with magnetic walls. Here was someone going on about musical beats, vegetable 'beeps' and inspiration drawn from colours and light, smells and sensations, plants and animals, spirits, mythology and the depths of personal experience. A 'classical' composer who seemed to be operating less as a craftsman of musical structures, but as one through whom all the above enabled a piece of music to be coaxed into existence.
"I stink, therefore i am" (Tom Robbins)

Hmm, interesting, even in the guitar world.
Save, perhaps, percussion (from matchboxes and saucepan lids upwards), the guitar is surely the most eclectic of instruments. Given its prominence in cultures world wide, it seems theres nothing people everywhere like more than a good pluck! This disparate background is partly why the classical guitar (now a well established 'serious' concert instrument) has such a diverse and open-minded bunch of both exponents and enthusiastic followers. Also, guitarish/composers, who are especially attuned to the history, cultural background, possibilities and idiosyncrasies of the guitar, play (as they always have) a prominent role in the life of the instrument.

Thoroughly distinctive and immensely gifted, Phillip Houghton is Australias most well known guitarist/composer. To play a single chord of Phil's music is to know that it is his. He has a way of using the guitar's natural resonance and timbral qualities to create music which is totally unique, thoroughly engaging, inseparably 'guitar', almost tangibly Australian, and very 'Phil'. Our great friends (some old and some new) who play with us here will also tell you that Phil's fastidiousness, imagination and ear for colour serve him well whatever the instrumental medium (from didjeridu and frog noises through to flute and violin).
Anyway, please have a listen and make up your own mind, after all, we just play the stuff... Phil can tell you about the pieces.

Z.O.O. DUO's (Peter Constant and Marian Schaap's)