Self-released
Release date: May 7, 2021
Production: Peter Hammill
Album length: 40:08 min
Genre: Progressive Rock / Eclectic Prog / Art Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Peter Hammill, prog-rock thunderer, ominous poet of post-apocalyptic visions and member of the legendary Van der Graaf Generator, has dropped a new solo album called “In Translation”, wearing an enigmatic smile and a tracksuit of the Italian national football team. It’s Peter’s first covers album in an incredibly rich, prolific, experimental and staunchly non-commercial solo career. These are eclectic takes on wildly diverse works by mostly Argentinian and Italian performers, composers and singer-songwriters, such as Argentina’s Astor Piazzola, Uruguayan-Argentine Horacio Ferrer, and Italians Luigi Tenco, Angela Tarenzi, Gianni Marchetti, Massimo Bubola and Fabrizio Di Andre. Fans of the legendary Italian prog heroes Premiate Forneria Marconi (PFM), whom Hammill once collaborated with, will know that last name well.
So the tracksuit in the colors of the “azzurri” is no accident, nor is it just a bit of flattery for his Italian fans, who have always welcomed this cult English musician with open arms. Mr. Hammill translated all the lyrics into English and reworked them so thoroughly that he turned pieces from wildly different genres, spanning classical music, Italian pop and tango, into almost entirely new creations. He played every instrument and orchestral arrangement on the album himself, though his one-of-a-kind voice is still his mightiest instrument. That timbre is still recognizable from a mile away, even though at 73 he can no longer reach some of the lines, and only on rare occasions does he turn into the raging thunderer who once effortlessly conjured the bleakest post-apocalyptic visions with his singing. If you know the original versions of these songs, you’ll have a hard time recognizing them in Hammill’s hands.
Most of the covers have a lovely ambient feel, so plenty of people who only know Mr. Hammill’s solo work superficially and swear by the classic Van der Graaf Generator albums will be surprised by how calm most of the orchestral arrangements, piano passages and occasional fragile guitar lines are, and by the master’s vocal performance too. He only lets himself loose once or twice (the cover of “Il Vino” stands out) with the kind of vocal experimentation that marked the lion’s share of his past output.
He gets closest to true vocal “thundering” on the distinctly dark cover of “Ciao Amore”, which in Hammill’s hands sounds menacing and sarcastic instead of lovey-dovey. Closing things out is the cover of “Lost To the World”, originally by the Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, who has a direct connection to our part of the world (he spent two years of his life in Ljubljana). Hammill turns it into a proper post-apocalyptic requiem. Listening to it, you get the feeling that Peter is painfully aware he’s one of the last musical “loners” from a completely different era, when nearly all music was made with heart and soul and his dark visions of the future hadn’t yet almost entirely come true.
There are no major outbursts of uncontrolled rage on “In Translation”, the kind that have been so typical of Peter’s career so far. On the other hand, age hasn’t made him all that soft either, so anyone new to his music could search “In Translation” with a magnifying glass and still not find a single overly tender or commercially tinted moment. At the same time, long-time fans will probably find it much easier to win over a friend or acquaintance to Hammill’s music with “In Translation” than with one of the more experimental releases from the “thunderer’s” colorful studio legacy.
“In Translation” was recorded in 2021, but it could just as well have been recorded in the seventies, eighties, nineties or at the turn of the millennium, since Hammill’s voice, apart from the “chasing” of extremely high or low lines, is still nearly intact. It’s a superb covers album, so good you forget they’re covers, since most of the lyrics about aging, loss, isolation and a bleak future sound like Mr. Hammill wrote them himself. And covers album or not, “In Translation” ranks among the master’s best solo achievements of the past two decades.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. The Folks Who Live On The Hill (Kern/Hammerstein)
2. Hotel Supramonte (de André/Bubola)
3. Oblivion (Piazzolla/Tarenzi)
4. Ciao Amore (Tenco)
5. This Nearly Was Mine (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
6. After A Dream (Fauré/Bussine)
7. Ballad For My Death (Piazzolla/Ferrer)
8. I Who Have Nothing (Magati/Mogol/Leiber/Stoller)
9. Il Vino (Ciampi/Marchetti)
10. Lost To The World (Mahler/Rückert)
Lineup:
Peter Hammill – vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, synthesizers, string arrangements
