Peter Hammill - In A Foreign Town - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Two CD set. 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. 'In a Foreign Town' was released in it's original form in 1988 to critical praise and featured material with a political edge and saw Hammill explore the use of MIDI technology in the studio and featured contributions from violinist Stuart Gordon. 'Out of Water' was a slight change in direction, featuring a more band orientated approach with contributions and featuring a more confident approach from Peter with regards to mastering the studio technology of the day.

2014 from the veteran Art/Prog Rock singer, songwriter and musician best known for his work with Van Der Graaf Generator. This is not a disc of conventional songs, though the fragments from which it's formed originally came from discrete examples of the standard form. These pieces, though, have been cut up and rearranged to form a continuous whole. As in a film, scenes blur into one another, moving backwards and forwards in time and space. Characters appear and disappear, wait in the shadows or are suddenly front of stage and under the spotlight. It's a chiaroscuro, quicksand world in which the music is both it's own soundtrack and screenplay. Written and recorded over an eighteen month period - the longest ever for a PH solo work - the album has gone through many twists, turns and transformations before arriving in this final form. It's not a concept album as such but it's use of jagged soundscapes, flatting and shadowed characters and elusive plotlines place it closer to a cinematic world than a narrative song one. The sound palate consists of guitars, synths, crushed beats and, of course, insistent vocals. This is unlike anything Peter has attempted before, even after 45 years at the game.

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 InchI who have nothing', originally an Italian tune.