Slow Dance is a studio album by English musician and songwriter Anthony Phillips, released in September 1990 on Virgin Records.
[2] The rise in new-age music towards the end of the decade had prompted him to "crank it up a bit" and gather material of an orchestral nature that he had written years before and combine it with fresh ideas for a new studio album of a large scale.
[2][1] During the closing stages of his collaboration album Tarka with Harry Williamson in December 1987, Phillips began to write Slow Dance which he initially found "daunting" and for a while, avoided working on it.
[3][4] Once Phillips had gained some momentum, he recalled that "working on a big canvas" once more was an exciting one and felt particularly inspired from the frustration in not having been able to have an outlet for the larger scale ideas he had accumulated.
[2][1] Phillips's enthusiasm for the project resulted in four long pieces outlined in two months: one each based on the piano and 12-string guitar, and two of varied styles and arrangements which he thought resembled a film soundtrack.
[3] To help fund the album's production, Phillips was able to secure an advance from the US-based independent label Passport Records, something he had been unable to get since the late 1970s.
[4] However, after the four pieces had been written, Phillips learned during a subsequent visit to the US in May 1988 that Passport Records had ceased trading, leaving the label unable to pay the promised advance.
[7] In the course of the following eight "nerve racking" months Phillips, now without a label, in debt, and with no immediate way of repaying what he had borrowed from management, doubted whether the album would ever be made, let alone released.
[6] Having borrowed a sum of money from other sources, Phillips was able to hire a group of session musicians to play the parts he had arranged, a risk he was willing to take as he occasionally had thoughts of the album being successful to the point of relieving him of financial situation.
[7] Despite Phillips having insufficient funds to cover the cost, Heyworth paid for the session which took place at CBS Studios in central London in February 1989.
[6][9] With the album recorded, Phillips resumed composing for television and library music with the aim of recouping the debts that had mounted from producing Slow Dance.
Phillips recalled that management at Virgin were not keen on titles that emphasised a new-age record, and had also suggested Responses and Millennium, but a feature film of the latter name was to be released so he scrapped it.
The new mixes were produced using records "pretty near the original masters" which Phillips and his engineers thought sounded "fifteen to twenty percent better" than using generation copies.