Since bootleggers were fetching high prices for Van Der Graaf Generator rarities compilations from fans, VDGG leader Peter Hammill decided to compile ten of the best tracks and give them an official release. Since some of the tracks were never even completed, some present-day overdubbing was required, but according to Hammill in the liner notes, "all dubbing was completed in nine hours, in order to stay true to the spirit of the venture." And although the listener is warned that these are not studio quality recordings, the overall sound is consistently good. Besides, most of the people who would buy this album in the first place are the VDGG fanatics, who will be happy just to acquire this material. Most of the material is worthwhile and deserves to be heard, such as "The Liquidator," "Rift Valley," and "Coil Night" (why these strong compositions were never put on an album is a mystery)…

‘In a Foreign Town / Out of Water 2023’ is a new project by Peter Hammill. which features new reworkings of two of Peter’s landmark albums originally released in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

Peter Hammill has been at it for almost 40 years now, and yet, since the early 2000s, he has been on a new way up, creatively speaking. Clutch (2002) and Incoherence (2004), his previous two studio albums, had both hit high artistic marks, but that is only one of the main reasons why Singularity was so highly anticipated by the fans. It was also the Thin Man's first studio album since remastering his '70s LPs for EMI, his first since the re-formation of his old group, Van der Graaf Generator. Yet, most importantly, especially for a man of words like he is, it was his first studio release since his heart attack two years earlier. Were all the expectations generated by these "firsts" met? Surprisingly, yes. Singularity stands among Hammill's best albums of the past 25 years.

All That Might Have Been, issued in the same year as Other World, is Peter Hammill's excellent duet offering with guitarist Gary Lucas, and it's among the most intellectually challenging, conceptually sprawling, and musically satisfying offerings in his career. Given its heft, it is more than likely that this is a record he couldn't have made when he was younger. It is the work of a master in full control of his vision. Described by Hammill as "cinematic by design," it features 21 tracks which were deliberately edited to be incomplete. Taken together they create a conscious narrative; its scenes are sonic episodes that move backwards and forwards just as an actual film would. This is not the same thing as creating a soundtrack without a movie, this is both: a soundtrack and an aural movie…

Peter Hammill is one of the formative characters of the progressive rock scene to date. In the beginning of the 1970's he recorded four cumbersome mysterious albums with his band Van der Graaf Generator which never could reach the commercial heights of cognate bands like Genesis or Yes due to their musical intransigence. After several visionary but difficult to access albums, Hammill reformed the quartet for another four albums which introduced a more earthy but not less complex sound. After the band's second end in 1978, on solo albums like "The Future Now", "ph7" or "A Black Box" Hammill experimented extensively in the studio and acquired the latest techniques like i.e. early forms of sampling; one of the most breath-taking results being the 20 minute long soundscape 'Flight'…

In Disequilibrium consists of two contrasting suites that flow with surging melodic themes, sinuous guitar, intricate arrangements for mallet instruments, sinuous woodwind, sumptuous orchestral detailing, organic textures, and bracing rhythmic counterpoints…

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.

The Amorphous Androgynous return with the symphonic, 40-minute prog space-rock concept album ‘We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal’. The album contains 5 epic parts, featuring the legendary Peter Hammill (the Van Der Graaf Generator) on vocals alongside a host of musicians including: Paul Weller (piano and guitar), Ray Fenwick (Spencer Davis Group/Ian Gillan) on lead guitar, Brian Hopper (Caravan/Soft Machine) on sax. The Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and a 25-piece live orchestral string section round out this sumptuously-recorded album.

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…

The Amorphous Androgynous return with symphonic 41 minute 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal' in 6 epic parts. Featuring the legendary Peter Hammill (the Van Der Graaf Generator) on vocals alongside a host of musicians including Paul Weller (piano and guitar) Ray Fenwick (Spencer Davis Group / Ian Gillan Band) lead guitar, Brian Hopper (Caravan / Soft Machine) on sax and many others including the 50 piece Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and a 25 piece sumptuously recorded live orchestral string section…

The usual Hammill combination of musical excellence and the deepest emotions this side of hell…

Peter Hammill again plays the same trick as he did in 1978-1979, when, after the strange, experimental The Future Now LP, came the more straightforward pH7. The same relationship exists between A Black Box and Sitting Targets…