Balearic Breakfast | Episode 208 | Meeting Phil Mison & Family Gatherings (Christina DeSouza)

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 208th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on January 21th 2025.

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About this episode. – Today we weren't as lucky as always, laughs! While being on vacation on the Canary Islands in Spain, Colleen tried to stream today's episode, but destiny had other plans and despite Colleen's willingness to share the show she worked on, the wifi connection wasn't strong enough and, sadly, cut our hapiness short after half an hour! Yet, just as she said, Colleen posted the full episode on her mixcloud a few minutes later!

"Frizzy hair and frumpy top - I must be on holiday! Any guesses?Today’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud at https://tinyurl.com/46jacdxj and as I’m away and cannot stream live from my beloved record room, this show features a guest mix and interview with Phil Mison of Cantoma music. Phil is a legend in the Ibiza / Balearic chill out scene who was semi-discovered by Jose Padilla when he asked Phil to fill in for him at the Café del Mar in 1993. Since that time, Phil has graced many chill out spaces with both his DJ sets and his own music. As Cantoma, he has released 5 albums of deep Balearic goodness and we have a chat about the latest ‘See in the Sun’. You will love the mix he did for us, too.

After Phil’s mix we have a family mix from one of our regular contributors to the show. Balearic Breakfast family member Christina DeSouza has been making great requests for the past few years and this time she gets an hour all to herself. I think you’ll love it.

Thanks to all who joined me for the live stream this morning and sorry we had to jump ship. The WiFi here isn’t powerful enough to handle our heavy tunage - what can I say . We’ll try again next week as we have another great show with a guest mix and interview with Tigerbalm and a BB family mix from David Stoddard.

In the meantime, I’m going to get back to my book (reading Karl One Knausgaard’s The Morning Star series) so please kick back and relax to this week’s show..."

Listen back to the 208th episode of Balearic Breakfast:

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PLAYLIST

Phil Mison's Mix:

(1971) Ennio Morricone – Rodeo

(1985) Airé – Airé

(2016) Bendith – Mis Mehefin

(1972) Os Borges – Es Sou Como Voce E

(2022) Disperazione Gioia Mia (Bottin Edit)

(NOL) Ambala – Amor Bailar (Idjut Dan Dub Reprise 2)

(1989) Piero Fidelfatti – Experience

(2023) Kim Anh – In The Stars

(2025) Kenneth Bager, Findlay Brown & Anna Domino – Don’t Look Back

(2024) East Coast Love Affair – A Gradual Precipitation

(2022) Calm – Late Summer Night

(2023) Michael David ft Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Here With You

(2024) Cantoma – First Nothing (Noche Espafiola Remix)

Christina DeSouza's Mix:

(XX) Serenity – Serenity

(1983) Will Powers – Smile

(1988) Giant Steps – Steamy

(1983) Marcella Bella – Nell'aria

(1988) Mike Francis – Times Out of Time

(2012) Michael Franks – Jealousy (Geyster Remix)

(1977) The East St. Louis Gospelettes – Have Mercy on Me

(1972) Odyssey – Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love

(1979) Christian Gaubert – Sweet Maryline

(1989) Malcolm Mclaren – Deep in Vogue

(1982) Eye to Eye – Nice Girls

(2010) Cristina – When U Were Mine

(1969) Stelvo Cipriani – Mary's Theme

(1983) Robert Palmer – Deadline

(1981) Marti Caine – Love Is Running Through Me

(1976) Jaye P. Morgan – Keepin' It to Myself

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PHIL MISON'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN

Greetings, I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast on my MixCloud Live until high noon. And a big hola to everyone joining me on the live stream. Thanks for being there.

Today we have two special guest mixes. The first is from Phil Mison, a DJ who for the last three plus decades has had a strong connection with Ibiza as he was mentored by the late José Padilla of the Café Del Mar. Phil is a wonderful DJ and a seasoned producer who as Contoma has released several albums of deep Balearic goodness.

On today's show we have a chat about his latest album Into the Daylight and we are treated to a special one hour mix from him. After Phil we have a special guest mix from one of our Balearic Breakfast family members, Christine DeSouza. For years she has made some great requests and we're excited to hear what she has in store for us.

But first here is Phil Mison of Cantoma.

[Colleen]

Well, greetings Balearicans. With me in the studio right now I have DJ and producer Phil Meissen who has a new Cantoma album out called Sea in the Sun which we have featured here on Balearic Breakfast before.

And he is a Balearic stalwart and I'm just so excited to have him here in the studio with us. He joined us once when Balearic Breakfast started after the passing of José Padilla but we haven't really had a chance to talk just about his own kind of career and journey and music.

Phil, how are you?

[Phil]

Very good, Colleen, thank you. Are you?

[Colleen]

I'm good, thank you! I'm good. It was good to see you yesterday at the Idgit Boys. It was lovely. I know many people know your name from various places, whether it's Reverso 68 or your Cantoma moniker or your own name Phil Mison. How did you get your start in music?

[Phil]

Yeah, my mum always played records indoors, and she works briefly for Polygram or Polydor but she was on the assembly line sort of packing records in boxes. That was when I was about eight so she used to bring loads and loads of records home. So yeah, I always just had them on.

[Colleen]

Are there any records that you remember in particular?

[Phil]

Yeah, she bought home a bright pink one, Generation X, King Rocker. I was really into Blondie. I was kind of a bit obsessed and my mum joined me to the New York Fan Club or something when I was nine or ten.

So I had a lot of Blondie albums on. I was going to the local record shops as well. I'm just buying all sorts of records and I was showing as well.

[Colleen]

And then how did you kind of get into the whole DJ world?

[Phil]

Yeah, that was kind of by accident really. Actually, first of all, it was a couple of friends from school. We sort of started just doing local parties and stuff and then seriously, you know, I was buying a lot of records from 87 onwards, going to Groove Records in Soho and then, you know, in 88 I was buying, you know, going to Black Market and then Tracks when it opened.

And then the real DJ thing was, it was a quite random thing. I had a cassette tape that I'd done, so it was all sort of pretty ambient sort of thing and Darren Emerson heard it in a car. My friend was driving and he said, like, who's this?

And he went, oh, it's Phil. And he asked me to do a warm-up at the milk bar for him in 91, which was Nicky Holland. And so I kind of did that and then I think Darren left and Chris, the manager, said, look, you want to come back and because you're playing nice music at the beginning of the night, you're not kind of playing all the hits and turning it up super loud.

And so from there really, I just kind of fell into it really.

[Colleen]

I think that's kind of what happened to many of us, especially in the past when we didn't even know you could have a career as a DJ. It was like, who even knew you could have a career as a DJ? I didn't know that when I started.

[Phil]

The milk bar was great. It's a really fantastic place to start playing.

[Colleen]

What was it like?

[Phil]

It's quite small. It was maybe 250 people. It was just off Soho Square, Sutton Row. It's downstairs, just one room, simple DJ booth in the corner. And that was it really. I did the Mondays, but I first went on a Wednesday for pure Danny Rampling's night, which was fantastic.

Yeah, so I played there in 92, 93, and it closed in 93, I'm pretty sure.

[Colleen]

Not soon after you went to Ibiza. Can you tell us a little bit about that and that whole connection?

[Phil]

Yeah, that was, you know, friends have been going there for years, and I just went there with them. Heard, you know, we didn't know who he was, José at the Café du Mar, but you know, everyone bought the tapes. That was the thing you did, you know, clubbing, tapes.

And then I think... the one year I didn't go back in 92, but I'd made these cassettes for my friend to give to the DJ. And it was José. And José's a bit confused.

Then I randomly bumped into him in Tag Records in Soho in 92, winter of 92. He's like, Oh, yeah, I've got the tapes. And I invited him to play the Milk Bomb with me.

And then, yeah, and then he said, Look, in February 93, I'm going to go away touring for a month in Asia or something. Do you want to do the Café du Mar while I'm away?

So I said, Yeah, sure. So he came down the next week with a plane ticket and his house keys. And I thought...

[Colleen]

Here we are! We are on. Wow. That must have been a real dream.

[Phil]

It was. Yeah, it was pretty random. I was quite young. I was 22. So it was pretty nuts to do that. Picked up by Pepe, the owner.

Couldn't find Jose's house because it was right up in the hay balls. And yeah, but it was an adventure. It was brilliant.

[Colleen]

So what was the Café del Mar like in 1993?

[Phil]

It was the same as it is now. Interior designed by Liuís Güell It opened in 1980. So I think, you know, that was the same, but there was not much around it then.

I guess there was just less people going there. Obviously, no one had mobile phones or anything, obviously. So people were kind of just there, maybe playing backgammon, having a sort of, you know, the old world, wasn't it?

That's just the way things were. But yeah, it was it was a great thing.

[Colleen]

And what kind of music were you playing then?

[Phil]

It's weird because the first year, I seemed to pick a soundtrack to play from a film. So that year, 93, I played a lot of Betty Blue, Gabriel Yared. And the next year, I played the piano by Michael Nyman and a lot of things like that.

[Colleen]

And what was the island like for you at that time?

[Phil]

I think because it was springtime in 1993, it was pretty, it wasn't that busy, really. At night, the Café de Mar wasn't so busy.

But at sunset, it was pretty packed. Yeah, I used to just go with the people living in José's house. We used to kind of just go into town in the evening, a few drinks in bars and what have you.

Yeah, it was, I just had my little moped because I didn't have much money. So I just used to zoom around. It's quite far to go, but I used to do it.

[Colleen]

That sounds great! It sounds so free and wonderful.

[Phil]

Yeah, I was thinking about it in José's house. We didn't even have a landline, but loads of people found us at the house.

[Colleen]

How did you start to get into production?

[Phil]

That was, I met Kenneth Baker, Kenneth Bayer (ed. Bager, Music For Dream's label founder, see here), in 93 at Roskilde Festival. And we just kept in touch. And then in 94, he was in Ibiza.

He's always, Kenneth's been going to Ibiza since, you know, the 80s. And we just all started hanging out. And he came to the Café de Mar.

And then in the winter of 94, me, José, Steffen Andersen from Mental Generation, who made the Café de Mar record, went to Copenhagen and we all made an album, and parts of which came out later on José's solo album. And then, yeah, Kenneth, in the late 90s, asked me back to sort of do some more music with Cantoma stuff. So I started that with Kenneth.

But yeah, I'm still in touch with Kenneth a lot now. I do music for him now under Ambala, which is another name I use. We work with a lot of people in Copenhagen.

Walter, his son, Trollsheba. But yeah, I think the second album should be out next year, I think.

[Colleen]

Now, you also did a lot of compilations, Pure Ibiza. You did a compilation called The Original Chill Out in 1995. You did one for Claremont 56.

Which one was the first compilation that you did?

[Phil]

That was the one in 95, The Original Chill Out.

[Colleen]

Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because that's around the same era that José Padilla was starting to do the Café Del Mar compilations, which we were selling at Dance Tracks in New York.

[Phil]

Right. Ben Turner was in the Café Del Mar a lot in 94. In his Musik Magazine, he was a dance writer for Melody Maker in the early 90s.

And he kind of promoted Underworld and a lot of Orbital and a lot of dance music. Then for a kind of, which was, I guess, more of a Melody Maker, it was a dance Musik Magazine. So then he's the editor of Musik Magazine, which became a big thing.

And so Ben, there's records like Paper Moon, 51 Days, Sands Your Man, Alabama Blues, Mechanical Soul Saloon. They became like the backbone of that compilation, really.

[Colleen]

51 Days, Paper Moon was a record that I used to play at The Loft as well.

[Phil]

Wow. Yeah, that was like a peak record at the Café Del Mar in 94 at night when the bar was just heaving with people. I used to play that record and it's really long as well. So you can wander around and chat. But you actually listen to it now. It's quite a mellow record-ish really.

And so you used to play it at The Loft.

[Colleen]

Yeah, I remember bringing it before it was on Touché. And I played it at The Loft and it became one of the kind of loft classics because David used to kind of turn to me to bring the new stuff in. So it'd be like Pasha, One Kiss, Fathers of Sound remix and a lot of Karma, High Priestess was another one. It was quite a few records like that. In any case, why don't we listen to some of your music now? This is a great exclusive mix that you've put together for us. And we'll return and talk about the new Cantoma album.

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[Colleen]

And we're back with Phil Mison from Cantoma. And even though I knew you, Cantoma landed on my radar in a really strange way. I was in Los Caños de Meca in Andalucía in 2003. And we had rented a house and somebody had left behind a CD. But it was one of those CDs that you burned.

It didn't have any writing on it. And we listened to the CD over and over and over again. And I actually also burned a copy so I could bring it home. And we listened to it all the time. And then later found out it was the first Cantoma album. And you and I were already friends. I didn't even know this. And since that time, you've put out five albums, the fifth being See You in the Sun in 2024. So Cantoma, you work with a lot of different people. And one person that you work with is Robin Twelftree. Can you tell me a little bit about him and how you got together?

[Phil]

I had to do a remix for Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus people. And then I was looking for an engineer to work with, to do it with. And then someone recommended Robin, who was working in Arch 25 in King's Cross, which was the arch next to the Cross Club, where Coal Drops Yard is now.

Robin is the core of, I think, the Bubble Club. But yeah, Robin's worked with a lot of people. And yeah, he's someone I've worked with since then, really.

I've also worked with Robin Lee. Robin lived at the end of the Metropolitan line. So it's easy just to jump on a train down there and do a lot of stuff with him.

That was the Into Daylight album, did a lot of stuff with Robin there. And I'm working now also with Justin Drake in Staines. This album, a lot of it was done See You in the Sun with Justin.

Justin Drake, I got put in touch with by Diesel from Express 2. So he works with Express 2.

[Colleen]

How would you describe the music and what you're trying to do?

[Phil]

I think primarily, just make something you like. That's important. Not too worried about, you know, I don't want to follow trends of thinking, oh, you know, people like this now are going to make that.

I kind of just stick to this path of doing what I like. It's just ideas and words and songs just appear in my head sometimes. And I just write them down and go from there.

[Colleen]

Well, I think most people would agree it has this kind of more like the chill out balearic kind of sound that you're trying to express through Cantoma. At least that's what I've heard on the five albums.

With this album, I see a step in a more kind of musically mature direction. And I noticed that you have about 20 different contributors. And you mentioned, you know, you have obviously Robin and Justin, but there are a bunch of guest musicians here as well. Can you talk us through some of the people that have participated on this record?

[Phil]

It's an important one is Quinn Lamont Luke.

[Colleen]

I love Quinn. Yeah.

[Phil]

I met in 2008 at The Loft in New York.

[Colleen]

Oh, yeah. Wow.

[Phil]

That's where I met Quinn. Then we were just hanging around. We were introduced through mutual friends. I think I was aware of his music and everything. So, yeah, it's always great to work with Quinn. And there's through Robin 12.

I got hooked up with a girl, Luna Asteri. She's a Spanish singer. Who else did I work with? There's always Patrick Dawes on percussion. We worked with Gruvomodo. Yeah. My friend Sebastian Lilja from Stockholm on guitar. So, yeah, there's lots of people.

[Colleen]

And was there anything that you wanted to accomplish with this record before you set out to make it?

[Phil]

I think maybe more songs. I thought I'd give it a go, having more songs, then do an instrumental version as well. It's sometimes more popular than the actual vocals.

Oh, yeah. André Esposito (ed. Espeut), I worked with him as well. I used to leave big gaps between making albums, but now I'm just carrying on. I have another album I'm working on.

[Colleen]

Oh, my gosh, that's great. You're being very prolific then. That's wonderful.

And you said before that this album also has an instrumental version and you've done this before, like when you had the album out of town, you had another release with the remixes, which actually included a remix of mine for you, Dix Werte, a Cosmodelica remix. Why did you put out an instrumental version of Sea and the Sun? Do some people prefer just to have instrumentals?

[Phil]

You know what? They do, I think. Some people, yeah.

You wouldn't think so, but yeah, some people just like instrumental versions. I don't know why, but I thought I've got them sitting there. I'll just give people the choice.

[Colleen]

It's a beautiful cover as well. It's Dix Werte that did the cover, correct?

[Phil]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. Yeah, and she's got a few more too.

[Colleen]

Really, really wonderful. Now, before we love you and leave you, I just wanted to ask you first, what's coming up in the near future? You have the Ambala album with Music for Dreams coming out next year.

What else is happening?

[Phil]

The 7-inch that's out the 29th of November, hopefully. That's 250 limited little 7-inch, which is just a new track that I remixed. I don't know why I've done this, Colleen.

I've just done it. And then doing a couple of remixes of the Sea and the Sun of some other stars, doing a remix of that. And then, yeah, just carrying on with the new album, really, and a bit of DJing here and there.

[Colleen]

Lovely. Thank you so much for joining us. And you do have this last song that you wanted to tell us about, which I believe is the one that's coming out on 7-inch in the near future?

[Phil]

Yeah. The next release is First Nothing, a Nocciaspergnola remix, which is coming out on 7-inch on the 29th of November.

[Colleen]

Thank you, Phil. That was wonderful. And now a special guest mix from one of our family members. Christine D'Souza was born in Lisbon and brought up in Manchester. And her love for music started via her late father, who collected well over 5,000 albums throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, which she has inherited and to which she is making her own editions of CDs and vinyl as she loves looking through the record shops and charity shops. She also worked in pop music PR for many years, but she says she is purely just an amateur collector lover of music.

But the Balearic Breakfast family and myself absolutely love her musical choices. And for the next hour, she'll be taking us on her musical journey. Here is Christine DeSouza.

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CHRISTINA DE SOUZA'S MIX

A one-hour, uplifting, free and all direction moving nice musical trip, with some beautiful light mixes between the songs, having its best moment in the mid-section (around half an hour into the selections played). This is how we could present Christina de Souza's mix in a few words! Although we would have loved to have a more pronounced melodical and rhythmical unity, the mix really grabs us by the hand and takes us to dance, and this happens right from the start between Serenity and Smile, the latest track taking the listener by surprise but still allowing the previous song to end beautifully!

Keeping the energy intact, Christine then plays Giant Steps' Steamy (I love the huge and spacy soundstage on that one!!) nicely followed by the gorgeous Marcella Bella's Nell'aria, showcasing here Christina's free musical spirit and perfectly followed by Mike Francis' Times Out of Time, do you feel the fresh air taking you away here? Christina then keeps the open and relaxed feeling a little bit longer by playing Michael Franks' Jealousy (Geyster Remix) oh so beautifully introduced in the mix!

We're 30 minutes into the mix and the most beautiful moment starts here, with The East St. Louis Gospelettes' Have Mercy on Me, incredibly and beautifully followed by the mesmerising Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love (Odyssey), not forgetting here the perfectly fitting Sweet Maryline by Christian Gaubert (a huge figure in French Music's history as he orchestrated a lot of music for movies, also working with international artists like Celine Dion, also crafting the astounding arrangement of Charles Aznavour's 1968 Desormais or working as a composer for Mireille Mathieu)! To me, this part of the mix, starting from 1h30, is the absolute Wow Moment of today's episode!!

Then, Christina takes us to the last part of her mix, keeping her open and free musical spirit with Malcolm Mclaren's Deep in Vogue, followed by Nice Girls (we would have loved to be able to keep Deep in Vogue's vibe and rhythm a little bit longer, we must admit that ^^).

With the next songs, Cristina's When U Were Mine (written and first released by Prince in 1980) and Stelvo Cipriani's Mary's Theme, and despite their revelancy, the listener feels a bit lost in the music as there are a lot of changes to deal with. This feeling is also very present as Robert Palmer's Deadline enters the musical scene (taken from his Pride Album), slightly rebalancing the mixe's musical homogeneity though.

The last two songs, Marti Caine's Love Is Running Through Me and Jaye P. Morgan's Keepin' It to Myself beautifully open up the end of this nice mix which only lacks a tiny bit more of rhythmic and musical homogeneity to be Perfect! Nice musical moment indeed!