Phil was everything: a rogue, a maverick, an explorer. He suffered his demons but did so with courage and an unflinching painful honesty. Phil was easy to talk with. He was always engaging, interesting, and interested. He had a mane of dark, dark hair and a smile to melt hearts. His eyes told his entire life story, if one dared to gaze long enough.

Phil loved wholly, without caution, and with the deepest sincerity. His unquenchable curiosity doubled as an altruistic way of disarmament and evoked harmony when met with a different perspective. Phil was relentlessly gentle and understanding even when it was undeserved.

Phil was a veteran psychonaut whose deep inner journeys, life experiences, and struggles imparted him with a degree of insight, wisdom, humility, and humor that is all too rare. His expression of these qualities in his music infused it with a melancholic understanding of the beauty, joy, frailty, tragedy, and absurdity of the human condition.

Phil was a true artist in every fiber of his being. His incredible talent and infectious energy left a lasting impression on the world, and his music will always hold the top spot in our hearts.

Phil continues to inspire us all.

– The Remixers (Worldwide)

The idea for this project came from having a few remix packs that Phil had given me ages ago for some releases I’d curated, and inspired by Dave King’s (Longwalkshortdock) yearly tribute songs that he’d been posting since Phil’s passing. I had already remixed one of Phil’s songs almost a decade earlier, and had just decided to start on another near the beginning of 2021.

In a conversation later that year with Jaime Dunkle (Love Above Will), I mentioned I was working on another remix. During that conversation, I came upon the idea of putting together a bunch of remixes from Phil’s friends/collaborators as a tribute album, which she enthusiastically encouraged me to do.

After receiving the blessings from Phil’s family to move forward and reaching out to all the potential remixers, the pool of available songs for remixing was soon expanded with the invaluable assistance of Tim Hill (Rim). Not long after that, a couple more artists came on board, including Omar Hashmoder who revealed that he had the files for the last song Phil had been working on right up to the night before he left us. That song, “Dream Death,” is now finally being released, as well as a remix by Omar who also contributed some sounds to the original version.

This project was not without its share of delays and complications, one of which was Bandcamp refusing to give access to Phil’s artist page to his mother so this album could live there with the rest of his discography. Thankfully, Robert Shea’s Map Music has given it a fitting home considering that some of Phil’s earliest solo works originated from that seminal record label.

It has been a profound honor to work with all the artists and fellow lovers of Phil throughout this project. More than anything, I hope this album inspires people to continue exploring Phil’s vast catalog of music in all his solo and collaborative guises.

– Seth Branum (Bainbridge Island, WA)

My dear son: I miss you so much, but like your music, you now live in my heart and mind. Love, Mom.

– Enid Western (Vancouver, BC)