Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill - …all that might have been… (2014) [3CD Deluxe Edition] {Fie! Records}
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© 2014 Fie! Records | FIE9137X
Rock / Art Rock / Progressive Rock / Experimental Electronic / Alternative

Three CDs in this box set. The first is the same as the "normal" CD. Secondly a "Songs version. This is much like the Vinyl version, but longer (the LP tracls had to be edited to fit time constraints) and in a different order - which, of course, produces a different narrative. Thridly a "retro" version. This is a thirty minute, amost entirle instrumental, continuous piece, which mirrors a work-in-progress CD which I took with me to Japan in September 2013 and from which, eventually, emerged, the whole idea of continuous work. A couple of musical fragments which didn't make it onto the final recordings are also present here. Two 16-page booklets give full lyricxs for each version and an explanatroy blurb runs across the back of the three individual CD booklets.

An excellent idea (if, perhaps, a somewhat self-indulgent one): 12 of Peter Hammill's (Van Der Graaf Generator) finest recent songs, rendered into the German language that his more stentorian vocals seemed to be striving for, even in English. Titled for Out of Water's "Evidently Goldfish," the album is dominated by material from the early '90s: cuts from Fireships and The Noise account for more than half the album, while the remainder is culled from 1988's In a Foreign Town and 1986's And Close As This. But Offensichtlich Goldfisch is no simple retread of already familiar material. Although little more than the vocals were re-recorded from the original master tapes, the musical textures change immensely in their new setting, regardless of whether or not one understands German…

Peter Hammill has announced he'll be releasing a new live album X/Ten, through Fie! Records on November 30.

For the first time ever, Peter has recorded a collection of cover versions. The songs come from a variety of musical worlds: Classical, American Songbook, Italian Pop and Tango. In all but three cases Peter has also translated the songs, from Italian, French and German. As strange a project as this might seem, there’s an overall sense of cohesiveness to it and it’s absolutely of this time. Two songs have lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein; the music for one is by Jerome Kern, the other by Richard Rodgers. Leiber and Stoller provided lyrics for “I who have nothing’, originally an Italian tune. Three Italian songs are at the core of the album, written (and originally performed) by Fabrizio de Andre, Luigi Tenco and Piero Ciampi. The two tango pieces were composed by Astor Piazzolla. Finally, there are two classical songs, respectively by Faure and Mahler.

A four-song German-released EP with cuts from Fireships ("I Will Find You") and The Noise ("Like A Shot, The Entertainer") bracketed by German versions of "Auto" (from In A Foreign Town) and "His Best Girl" (from Fireships.) The latter cut, retitled "Favorit," has Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator) sounding quite unlike himself until the end, with his measured delivery of the lyrics (in a somewhat French accent!) Proving highly compelling. "Auto (Wieder im Wagen)," meanwhile, becomes even more chaotic and surreal than the original, though the mix on this version is very weak indeed. A fascinating curiosity, though.

After three eponymous discs noteworthy for their thematic richness and musical experimentation, Peter Gabriel yielded to conventional wisdom by actually titling this 1982 successor. In every other respect, however, Security was another stride beyond the progressive rock terrain Gabriel had explored from Genesis forward. Most crucially, he goes deeper into the heart of world music, and further investigates the African sources first invoked on the prior album's magisterial track, "Biko." …

Security (IV) – which was titled Peter Gabriel everywhere outside of the U.S. – continues where the third Gabriel album left off, sharing some of the same dense production and sense of cohesion, yet lightening the atmosphere and expanding the sonic palette somewhat. The gloom that permeates the third album has been alleviated and while this is still decidedly somber and serious music, it has a brighter feel, partially derived from Gabriel's dabbling in African and Latin rhythms. These are generally used as tonal coloring, enhancing the synthesizers that form the basic musical bed of the record, since much of this is mood music (for want of a better word).