ISILDURS BANE & PETER HAMMILL

Intense collaboration between VdGG legend and boundary-pushing Swedes.

Peter Hammill is a man still open to stepping out of his comfort zone and pitting his voice against new, sometimes challenging soundscapes. This collaboration with Swedes Isildurs Bane is a startling clash between the ancient and modern, Hammill’s inimitable vocals hacking their way through the dense foliage of IB’s electroacoustic compositions. Before You Know It contrasts crackling digitalia against koto and marimba, the urban jungle at night. Hammill sounds edgy, but ready for the fight, and when the thump of an industrial beat kicks in, and the guitar grinds and the synths fry, he’s in his

element, his voice pushing against the pressure system of the music – it’s reminiscent of Hammill’s classic late-70s album pH7. Aguirre could be latter-day Tangs, IB’s dizzying sound often cinematic in scope, so it’s fitting that Hammill bases his lyric on Werner Herzog’s film about folly and madness in the Amazon. This Is Where? is a percussive dash through the rainforest, with a bold, twisting melody, but it’s the relatively stripped back The Day Is Done that’s perhaps the best song here, just Hammill and IB’s Mats Johansson on piano, a riveting and emotional performance from both men.