Artist: Peter Hammill Genre(s):
Rock
ROck: Alternative
Other
Rock: Electronic
Discography:
Spur of the Moment Year: 2005
Tracks: 11
Incoherence Year: 2005
Tracks: 1
This Year: 2003
Tracks: 10
What, Now? Year: 2001
Tracks: 8
None of the Above Year: 2000
Tracks: 8
Sonix Year: 1997
Tracks: 9
Everyone You Hold Year: 1997
Tracks: 9
X My Heart Year: 1996
Tracks: 9
Roaring Forties Year: 1994
Tracks: 13
The Noise - There goes The daylight Year: 1993
Tracks: 10
The Noise Year: 1993
Tracks: 8
Offensichtlich Goldfisch Year: 1993
Tracks: 12
The Fix on the Mix Year: 1992
Tracks: 4
Nadir's Big Chance Year: 1992
Tracks: 11
Fireships Year: 1992
Tracks: 9
A Fix On The Mix Year: 1992
Tracks: 4
The Fall of the House of Usher Year: 1991
Tracks: 21
The Silent Corner and The Empty Stage Year: 1990
Tracks: 7
Out of Water Year: 1990
Tracks: 8
Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night Year: 1990
Tracks: 8
In a Foreign Town Year: 1988
Tracks: 12
Skin Year: 1986
Tracks: 8
And Close As This Year: 1986
Tracks: 8
The Love Songs Year: 1984
Tracks: 10
Love Songs Year: 1984
Tracks: 10
Patience Year: 1983
Tracks: 8
Loops and Reels Year: 1983
Tracks: 7
Black Box Year: 1983
Tracks: 8
Enter K Year: 1982
Tracks: 8
Sitting Targets Year: 1981
Tracks: 11
Sitting Targes Year: 1981
Tracks: 11
A Black Box Year: 1980
Tracks: 8
Ph7 Year: 1979
Tracks: 11
Ph 7 Year: 1979
Tracks: 11
The Future Now Year: 1978
Tracks: 12
Future Now Year: 1978
Tracks: 12
Over Year: 1977
Tracks: 8
The Silent Corner and The Empty Year: 1974
Tracks: 7
In Camera Year: 1974
Tracks: 7
Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Year: 1973
Tracks: 8
Chameleon In The Shadow Of Night Year: 1973
Tracks: 8
Fools Mate Year: 1971
Tracks: 12
Thin Man Sings Ballads Year:
Tracks: 12
Born Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill, November 5, 1948, in Ealing, London, to parents of clean good means, Peter Hammill grew up in the embrace of the Jesuit faith, an element that has continued to affect and influence his songwriting throughout his career as a lot as his studies of philosophy and fine art. The drive of his particular muse, fueled to boot by the '60s groundswell of new approaches to skill fabrication (the so-called "New Wave," with Michael Moorcock, Thomas Disch, Harlan Ellison, and others leading the consign, and ex-Deviants drawing card Mick Farren on its heels) light-emitting diode to collaboration with Chris Judge-Smith at Manchester University, with Van Der Graaf Generator forming around them -- albeit briefly.
The band skint up afterward a figure of gigs, with Hammill going solo. The comer of a Mercury Records contract light-emitting diode Hammill into the studio, accompanied by versatile friends, for a abbreviated but vivid recording academic session. Within a matter of hours, Van Der Graaf Generator was reborn, though minus Judge-Smith, and the band had begun to develop the studio relationship with producer John Anthony that would serve them for the succeeding few albums. The canonical monumental VDGG had not still come about, but Hammill's writing was already place setting the note -- splintered personalities facing the darkness, cosmic secrets just beyond strive, thresholds beyond which skulk sudden decease, lighthearted topics one and all. Even their one individual, "People You Were Going To," is basically a jolly glad play of a tune with a musical note of despair at a lower place. Hammill would afterward re-record the song for
Nadir's Big Chance.
The new band lineup had its possess percentage of uncertainties, with bassist Keith Ellis departing for an unceremoniously brief stint in Uriah Heep. With new bassist/guitarist Nic Potter in towage, VDGG united Genesis in signing with Anthony Stratton-Smith's new Charisma label. By this power point Hammill had begun to down his songwriting into thirster and more flowery forms, with very good results, with his themes touch on twin points of skill and mysticism, with the occasional sidestep into more downward to earth territory. The number one trey VDGG albums for Charisma touched through a variety of shattered and darkened landscapes, with some authentically temperature reduction moments, such as the science fiction junket "Pioneers Over C" and "Man-Erg," which attempted to address the dual nature of man in around 12 transactions flat.
Hammill's number 1 solo junket,
Fool's Mate (both a cheat and Tarot reference), came aboard the Van Der Graaf Generator record album H to He Who Am the Only One. It consisted, in the principal, of an mixed bag of songs deemed to a fault small for the ring, real from his early solo days, and so on, items that he seemed to want to clear forbidden of the elbow room. His in-studio help included members of Lindisfarne, some other Charisma signing, and Robert Fripp. In direct contrast, following the licentiousness of VDGG undermentioned
Pawn Hearts, Hammill's soph release, The Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night, was a black affair indeed. Hammill seemed to demand to denude things depressed to the nude essentials, recording at base (the number one appearance of Sofa Sound) for the to the highest degree component part, his lyrics telling more personal tales -- it's only if with the last "The Black Room" that things sound conversant. Considering the presence of the rest of the band, and that this had in the first place been intended as a banding song, it's hardly a surprise.
With The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, Hammill began to bump a voice away from VDGG, though his written material had still to completely age -- "Red River Shift" is some other cosmic burden, for exercise. On the other hand, the album sports several arresting tracks, including "Modern," "Wilhelmina," "Forsaken Gardens," and "A Louse Is Not a Home."
In Camera byword him handling virtually of the subservient work himself and experimenting with ambient soundscapes.
In 1975, he once once again dug into the back catalog of his songs, assuming the leather-jacketed image of Rikki Nadir for
Nadir's Big Chance, a noisy, chaotic album of garage band-styled stone & wrap. While non exactly the three-chord thrash picnic Hammill seems to get wanted (it at least comes done for with the elegaic "Pompeii," if non with "The Institute of Mental Health, Burning"), the record album seems to have had its effect in the British music community, existence cited by more than a few in the next toughie tumultuousness as an influence -- even John Lydon went populace with a degree of admiration for Hammill's work. The cult of worship built up round Hammill has persisted for age, and is on the face of it orotund sufficiency, worldwide, to support him systematically.
1975 adage the reincarnation of Van Der Graaf Generator in a reasonably calmer format, patch the songs still extended to epic length, the trend towards proto-jazz explosions with rock and roll underpinnings had been shorn away, the drumming was more laid back, and the lyrics tended towards examinations of masses (though the cosmic did make quite a return on
Still Life with "Round-eyed Faith in Childhood's End," though this one had a tale voice to it).
The first base iI releases,
Godbluff and
Inactive Life, were fine albums, with one of Hammill's finest songs, "My Room (Wait for Wonderland)" appearing on the latter, only the third album,
World Record indicated fuss ahead -- a passably weak, lifeless release that appeared to take come from a band that had lost heart. Indeed it had. The band fractured yet over again. Hammill took some time to record
Over, an intense solo set going over the detachment of his longstanding relationship, acting a set of songs that alternately raged and offered up a cutting view of living. This fix the stage for the next version of the banding, now known simply as Van Der Graaf, a transitory exploit that managed a single studio press release, with a posthumous live album, acidly coroneted
Life-sustaining, marking the official death of the band.
Hammill returned to his solo efforts once again, ab initio choosing to track record A Black Box by himself, just then adopting a band approach for a issue of subsequent releases. By this point his writing had taken on a mature focus, with even the lengthier efforts eschewing the cosmic and mystical in favour of the personal focus, often with a darkly dry construction. He is capable of existence dead sardonic while maintaining a fire hook face, a brother in intent, sometimes, to Leonard Cohen. His ability to chart his own trend to the full stems from his option to engage his own record label as an adjunct to his ever-improving studio operation -- it's this studio apartment operation, in fact, that allowed him to return to and remaster the Van Der Graaf recordings in 2000, to grow The Box.
A unconstipated output of new recordings is supported by an ongoing series of concert appearances around the world, as well as numerous collaborations with a bewildering variety of artists -- Roger Eno, Peter Gabriel, and Robert Fripp are scarcely trio of stacks. Hammill has also composed concert dance music, and the operatic exploit, The Fall of the House of Usher (based on the Edgar Allan Poe story). He has been matrimonial for quite an some time and has trey daughters, iI of whom take made appearances on his albums. Despite his selfsame world part, however, he cadaver a slightly enigmatical and private man whose music confounds some and inspires many.
