FIE Records
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Sold outGuy Evans was invited to do whatever he wanted for a concert at Union Chapel. He decided to do a duet performance with Peter Hammill. And in the process the two of them invited a number of their favorite musicians to join them.Visit product page →
The onstage result that evening of Nov. 3, 1996 was a round robin of solos, duets and ensembles with musicians coming and going. Suddenly at the climax of the evening the audience realized that the ensemble in front of their eyes just happened to be Van der Graaf Generator performing together for the first time in nearly 20 years!
But they did so in a typically sideways manner which had more to do with the (radical) logic of the moment than with fitting into any genre or raking in the lucre in some sad pastiche of their younger selves. Thankfully the evening was preserved on this official bootleg.
Tracklisting:
CD 1:
1. Introduction
2. Fireworks
3. A Forest Of Pronouns
4. Anatol's Proposal
5. After The Show
6. Roger And Out
7. Accidents
8. Four Kinds Of Rice/Hello/Resolution
9. Women Of Ireland
10. Ship Of Fools
CD 2:
1. Hamburg Station
2. Seven Wonders
3. Adagio For Strings
4. Red Shift
5. Lemmings
6. Outroduction
7. Traintime -
Sold outPeter Hammill has been a writer, singer and performer for the last thirty years. For most of that time he has been firmly planted in the 'Art/Weird' box. For a brief period in the early eighties, though, he had a Beat Group, albeit a somewhat unlikely one...The K Group.Visit product page →
The rhythm section of Guy Evans (drums) and Nic Potter (bass) had, of course, played with Peter in Van der Graaf Generator. It should not be forgotten, however, that they were also members of Glenn Fernando Campbell's Misunderstood. Enough credentials? Lead guitarist was John Ellis, ex-Vibrators & Peter Gabriel. Peter had met him while both were performing with the Stranglers while Hugh Cornwell was in jail. Peter himself contributed his own brand of brutal rhythm guitar, piano & vox.
Taking material from Peter's solo career, from VdGG and from the two records which, under Peter's solo name, the combination recorded together (Enter k and Patience), the group toured consistently between '82 and '83. Clubs, mostly; Germany, mostly; high voltage, definitely. This release presents, on CD 1, the original 'The Margin,' as recorded live in the UK in '83, in a remastered form.
A second CD contains live-wire performances from '82 in brutal stereo intensity. The K Group could and did play in funny time signatures and at times with great sensitivity. The dominant aesthetics of the group, though, were blasting guitars, bass string blisters, shredded drum heads, oxygen debt, sweat. Here it is. Ladies & Gentlemen, the bar is open.
Tracklisting:
CD 1:
1. The Future Now
2. Porton Down
3. Stranger Still
4. Sign
5. The Jargon King
6. Empress's Clothes
7. The Sphinx In The Face
8. Labour Of Love
9. Sitting Targets
10. Patient
11. Flight
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CD 2:
1. The Second Hand
2. My Experience
3. Paradox Drive
4. Modern
5. Film Noir
6. The Great Experiment
7. Happy Hour
8. Central Hotel
9. Again
10. If I Could -
Sold out"This is the forty-seventh album that I've recorded. As you'll know, there's always some difference in attitude, approach and style as I've gone from one to the next.Visit product page →
This time I've restricted myself to writing and playing exclusively on acoustic guitar. It was on this instrument that I began writing songs nearly forty years ago, so this meant something of a return to first principles. It was also a project of interesting and challenging discipline. I have not, though, made a simple acoustic record.
The guitars are layered and several and there are also outstanding sonic contributions from Stuart Gordon on violin and viola and David Jackson on sax and flute. I have bedded in backing vocals in places but in general the lead voice is centre stage.
The songs are at the serious end of the spectrum. No, this is not a folk album. " - Peter Hammill
Tracklisting:
1. We Are Written
2. Crossed Wires
3. Driven
4. Once You Called Me
5. The Ice Hotel
6. This Is The Fall
7. Just A Child
8. Skinny
9. Bareknuckle Trade -
"Consequences" is Peter's thirtieth solo studio album of original songs.Visit product page →
Ten jittery new pieces which stretch the boundaries of the form. Some are wordy, or about words - and miscommunication, mishearing, misapprehension. Around another corner, lives and actions are overheard, overseen, characters stalked and surprised.
Sometimes these pieces stray into the territory of the short story or screenplay - something is happening just outside the frame, just beyond the range of vision. Distanced from the norms of songs though they are, a strong narrative thread runs through the heart of each recording.
The instrumentation centres on electric guitars and a variety of pianos. Percussion is sparse. The occasional interjection of other instrumental colours enhances rather than expands the sonic picture. Central to the realisation of all the songs are authoritative vocal performances in lead, backing and choral roles.
Once again the whole thing is written, performed, sung and recorded entirely solo. "Consequences" is a weighty addition to Peter's body of work.
Songs include:
1. Eat my Words
2. Bite my Tongue
3. That Wasn't What I Said
4. Constantly Overheard
5. New Pen-pal
6. Close to Me
7. All the Tiredness
8. Perfect Pose
9. Scissors
10. Bravest Face
11. A Run of Luck -
Sold outNow newly remastered by Peter Hammill and including the bonus track, 'Seven Wonders.' "Enter K is very much a hybrid set of recordings which makes up a pair with Patience.Visit product page →
By the time of recording the k group was in full effect, having been formed to tour with songs from 'Sitting Targets' and 'A Black Box.' As I've said elsewhere, not exactly a Beat Group but probably the closest ensemble I've ever been in which would come under that category.
The personnel on 'k' are, of course, The K Group - Guy Evans, John Ellis and Nick Potter - with additional contributions from David Jackson.
The masters were evidently originally intended for vinyl, still the only game in town at that time. In the new remastering I've attempted to apply the same sonic processing as washed over the VdGG Box set and, indeed, The Margin +; I hope that the end result gives back some analogue oomph to the digital experience." - PH
Tracklisting:
1. Paradox Drive
2. The Unconscious Life
3. Accidents
4. The Great Experiment
5. Don't Tell Me
6. She Wraps It Up
7. Happy Hour
Additional Track
8. Seven Wonders -
Peter's first solo album for three years is an intimate affair.Visit product page →
The songs are for the most part based on single piano, guitar and vocal parts, designed for live performance. (Indeed, many of these songs have already been performed on stage.)
Overdubbing is textural - no percussion, supportive guitars, a central spine of bass, synth and string washes; many extra voices - backing, harmony, choral - behind the main one.
The characters who pave their fretful way through these songs are in general facing up to or edging in towards twilight. What's coming to them are moments of realisation rather than resignation. In the third act of life it's time to look with a clear eye at where one's been, at where one's going.
Tracklisting:
1. My Unintended
2. Reputation
3. Charm Alone
4. What Lies Ahead
5. Anagnorisis
6. Torpor
7. Milked
8. Girl to the North Country
9. On Deaf Ears
10. The Descent -
Sold out'Incoherence' is Peter Hammill's twenty-sixth solo album of completely new sung material, the forty-ninth in which he has had principal involvement as writer, singer and musician, including those with Van der Graaf Generator, instrumental 'Sonix' and live projects.Visit product page →
Peter has been noted for his words (and his care with and for them) since the beginning of his thirty-six year long career; in this continuous 42 minute song cycle his lyrics examine instances of language failing to work or to communicate...the impossibilities of words, where meaning, logic and intention fall apart into incoherence.
The musical backdrop to the lyrics is kaleidoscopic, based on Peter's keyboards and guitars with significant contributions from his long-term cohorts Stuart Gordon (violin) and David Jackson (saxes and flutes). Percussion is completely absent. The arrangements move jaggedly from floating improvisations to full orchestrations to full-on riffs, reflecting the paradoxes, the dead ends, the cliff-hanging inconclusions of the lyrical content. All this is a long way from the Pop Song. It is just as far away from the Classical Conservatoire or the Jazz Club.
Something else, again. Like it or loathe it, what else do you expect from PH by now? Surprise? A Conclusion?
Peter finished the final mix on this project at 5pm on December 5th 2003; forty-two hours later he had a heart attack, from which he is currently recovering. The moving finger writes, wags, points...and moves on. All our stories are incoherent.
Tracklisting:
1. When Language Corrodes
2. Babel
3. Logodaedalus
4. Like Perfume
5. Your Word
6. Always And A Day
7. Cretans Always Lie
8. All Greek
9. Call That A Conversation?
10. The Meanings Changed
11. Converse
12. Gone Ahead
13. Power Of Speech
14. If Language Explodes -
Sold outThe first of PH's more 'experimental' albums.Visit product page →
Tracklisting:
1. A Ritual Mask
2. Critical Mass
3. The Moebius Loop
4. An Endless Breath
5. In Slow Time
6. My Pulse
7. The Bells! The Bells! -
Sold outThis is Peter Hammill's latest album, a collection of songs recorded between January 1999 and February 2000.Visit product page →
Most of the vocals and instruments are performed entirely by Peter with some contributions from percussionist Manny Elias, violinist Stuart Gordon with Peter's daughters, Holly and Beatrice, providing some soprano vocals.
Tracklisting:
1. Touch And Go
2. Naming The Rose
3. How Far I Fell
4. Somebody Bad Enough
5. Tango For One
6. Like Veronica
7. In A Bottle
8. Astart -
While continuing to play his part in the ongoing career of Van der Graaf Generator - indeed, perhaps because the louder side of his nature is very much fulfilled in that environment - Peter has found himself increasingly drawn towards genuine solo performance when under his own name.Visit product page →
Over a series of tours he has reconnected with songs old and new in the ultimate stripped-down format of piano and voice, guitar and voice.
This double CD, taken from concerts in Japan and the UK in 2010 is Peter's first solo live recording since 1999's "Typical" and shows him at the peak of his powers, pushing and stretching both himself and the material into and out of shape.
One CD is of piano songs, the other guitar ones, following a matrix first laid down in the Tokyo shows. The songs are taken from the length and breadth of Peter's career and this release, documenting his solo performance style, is an important addition to his body of recorded work.
Tracklisting:
Disc 1:
1. Easy to Slip Away
2. Time Heals
3. Don't Tell Me
4. Shell
5. Faculty X
6. Nothing Comes
7. Gone Ahead
8. Friday Afternoon
9. Traintime
10. Undone
11. The Mercy
12. Stranger Still
13. Vision...
Disc 2:
1. Comfortable
2. I will Find You
3. Driven
4. The Comet the Course the Tail
5. Shingle Song
6. Amnesiac
7. What's it Worth?
8. Ship of Fools
9. Slender Threads
10. Happy Hour
11. Stumbled
12. Central Hotel
13. Modern
14. Ophelia -
Sold outRemastered version.Visit product page →
Tracklisting:
1. Sharply Unclear
2. The Gift Of Fire
3. You Can't Want What You Always Get...
4. A Headlong Stretch
5. Your Tall Ship -
Sold outPeter's last solo studio recording, 'Incoherence," was released in 2004, having been completed a day before he had a heart attack. Since then he's been occupied with the Van der Graaf Generator reunion, first in recording "Present" and then in the run of live shows undertaken in 2005; he was also responsible for remastering the VdGG catalogue. In 2006 "Veracious," a set of live duo performances with Stuart Gordon, was released and Peter also remastered the solo CDs which he had recorded for Charisma in the 70s.Visit product page →
Little wonder, then, that when he came to write and record "Singularity" intimations of mortality and considerations of history both public and personal were uppermost in his mind. The main theme here is the long dive down into not being who we were....
Perhaps inspired by the early Charisma recordings, "Singularity" is absolutely a solo record on which Peter sings and plays all instruments alone. This is not, though, a folksy singer-songwriter effort. Experimentation and change have always been important to Peter and some of the sonic landscapes encountered here are strangely new. Warped electric guitars and vocals crushed into slabs of noise are as likely to appear as grand pianos or acoustic guitars.
Many definitions of singularity exist and though several of them have some bearing on and resonance in this work the principle ones with which Peter identifies here are the personal (unusual, strange) and gravitational (Black Hole). So...it's serious but it's not devoid of humour, though where this occurs it's often of a black variety...and often directed back at the singer himself.
After all, we are all circling just outside the gravitational pull of our personal black holes...that's where we're heading. Meanwhile, though, we can whistle a tune, albeit a strange and singular one.
Tracklisting:
1. Our Eyes Give It Shape
2. Event Horizon
3. Famous Last Words
4. Naked To The Flame
5. Meanwhile My Mother
6. Vainglorious Boy
7. Of Wire, Of Wood
8. Friday Afternoon
9. White Dot -
Sold outFeaturing PH (vox, guitars, keyboards), Manny Elias (drums), Nic Potter (bass), John Ellis (guitar) and David Jackson (sax, flute), The Noise was recorded at Terra Incognita, Peter's studio in Bath, in 1992.Visit product page →
It followed on from the 'calm' CD, Fireships and was flagged at the time as being number one in the A Loud series. If the idea of grouping releases together in this way was one which quickly foundered, at least in this case it gave an indication of the general tenor of these songs.
They're not quite Nadir-like in their attack but a fair amount of 'bash-that-electric-guitar' does take place here. If anything, the original release erred on the side of sonic correctness at the expense of level; the remastering of this version puts this right and the amps are definitely turned up this time.
A couple of songs here subsequently became firm live favourites: 'Planet Coventry' and 'Primo on the Parapet.' Another song, 'The Noise' itself, clearly celebrates the joy of making a racket on stage. With the forthcoming prospect of the Van der Graaf Generator reunion it remains to be seen exactly how much of a noise PH is still prepared to make.
The remaster/reissue of this CD certainly puts down a pointer.... -
Sold outA full band live album from The Noise tour.Visit product page →
Tracklisting:
1. Sci-Finance (Revisited)
2. The Habit Of A Broken Heart
3. Sign
4. I Will Find You
5. Lost And Found
6. Planet Coventry
7. Empress's Clothes
8. Cat's Eyes/Yellow Fever (Running)
9. Primo On The Parapet
10. Central Hotel -
Sold out"Thin Air" is Peter's twenty-ninth solo album of original songs. It's been an eventful few years for Peter: a heart attack in December 2003 was followed by the Van der Graaf Generator reunion - both on stage and on record - in 2004/5. "Singularity," his last solo work, was released in 2006 and since then he has been deeply involved in the ongoing story of VdGG, now reconstituted as a trio and moving on from strength to strength.Visit product page →
These new recordings, then, mark a return to solo territory, but in the knowledge that the band is still an ongoing entity. Peter therefore decided to make this set of recordings a genuinely one-man effort, playing and singing every note on the disc. As might be expected of an artist now more than forty years into his career, these are adult songs, addressing grown-up themes. The songs are of disappearance, of loss, of dislocation. Often we know in advance that what we hold will be lost; sometimes the loss comes as a complete surprise.
The disappearances in our lives can be of culture, of people, of buildings, of relationships; this is the natural order of things rather than the exception. The themes of disappearance thread their way across nine pieces of impressionistic breadth. With piano, acoustic guitar and Peter's inimitable vocals to the front of the soundstage there is space left at the rear for fragmented sonic disturbances to be splashed across the songs.
Familiar elements of Peter's writing and recording styles are here, of course, but the combinations are put together in such a way as to make something new and challenging out of the whole. This is a worthy, fascinating and mature addition to Peter's body of work, which remains uneasy listening. It doesn't look as if he will be disappearing just yet.
Tracklisting:
1. The Mercy
2. Your Face On The Street
3. Stumbled
4. Wrong Way Round
5. Ghosts Of Planes
6. If We Must Part Like This
7. Undone
8. Diminished
9. The Top Of The World Club -
Remastered version.Visit product page →
Tracklisting:
1. Frozen In Place (Fragment)
2. Unrehearsed
3. Stupid
4. Since The Kids
5. Nightman
6. Fallen (The City Of Night)
7. Unready (Fragment)
8. Always Is Next
9. Unsteady (Fragment)
10. The Light Continent -
'Unsung' contains experimental instrumental work of an unpredictable and uncategorisable nature. Just around the corner from comparative order and logic chaos waits.... As the title implies, the absence of lyrics means that not even any clues are offered.Visit product page →
Peter Hammill himself explains as best he can: "This is effectively the third in an originally unconscious series initiated with 'Loops and Reels' and continued with 'Sonix.' It also bears relation to the work I did with Guy Evans on 'Spur of the Moment' and Roger Eno on 'The Appointed Hour.' I used to call this kind of stuff experimental, as if to differentiate it from the 'normal' world of song...but these days the song seems capable of being stretched in wider and wider ways and such a sub-definition seems arch at best.
"The pieces presented here, though, individually and collectively, went self-deterministic on me at a certain point and seemed to wilfully declare that they refused be made into songs as such, insisting that they were complete as pieces in their own right and as a set of recordings.
They are not 'for' anything (dance/visual), nor 'about' anything (in the absence of any narrative drive). They are not trying to fit into any given genre, nor trying to jam genres togethr in (cold) fusion. I've lived with them for some time now and it seems to me that they evoke some entirely other culture...and remain, therefore, defiantly unsung.
For me, these pieces collectively present an alternative aural landscape. If they are for the most part free-spirited and -willed they still conform to their own internal rules. All this comes from...well, somewhere else. I suppose that finally I don't care where it comes from, only how it ends up. In these cases, unsung." -
Sold outPeter Hammill had spent a considerable amount of time, energy and emotion revisiting and remastering a good portion of the Van der Graaf Generator catalog for The Box (a four disc VdGG retrospective you'll find below), and it had a definite impact on his latest release, "What, Now?"Visit product page →
"Exhilarating though this was it carried with it an element of emotional debt and a demand for self-examination. I determined that my own next release should be conventional (as in songs) rather than experimental and I therefore put to one side a collection of material I had been previously been working on and began assembling the "What?" of "Now." There are eight songs of varying length and style.
On three or four of them one finds, in various combinations, the members of the (erstwhile and maybe some day to be again) pHQ: Manny Elias, Stuart Gordon and David Jackson. This line-up remains one of which I'm very fond and which I believe has an extremely wide sonic palette. This is not, though, a revisitation of "X my heart," for the remainder of the tracks are fundamentally me playing alone.
This time my stabs at instruments are divided fairly evenly between guitars electric and acoustic, pianos/keyboards and bass. Of course, there's a lot of singing, both lead and backing vox/choral. Naturally, although there are elements of familiarity, it is not the same as what has gone before." - PH
Tracklisting:
1. Here Come The Talkies
2. Far-Flung (Across The Sky)
3. The American Girl
4. Wendy & The Lost Boy
5. Lunatic In Knots
6. Edge Of The Road
7. Fed To The Wolves
8. Enough
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