THE INTRO
When the Van der Graaf Generator icon felt lost in Covid confusion, unable to explore his own ideas, a search for cohesion resulted in an album of cover versions.
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Peter Hammill will release In Translation, his first ever covers album, on May 7.
The singer and musician pieced it together between March and December last year, resulting in renditions of works by a wide variety of artists and composers from Gustav Mahler to Leiber and Stoller.
He says that living through turbulent times of the Covid pandemic necessitated the detour into interpreting other people’s songs. “Everything was so uncertain last year that I didn’t feel in the right mental state to write or say anything from myself,” he says. “A month or so after lockdown started, I went into the studio, just for my own interest, and I started doing cover versions.
“It developed over months and months, and this particular group of songs appeared to me to be cohesive together. I wasn’t really going at it in an intellectual way, but the musical palate began to form itself and the songs had certain connections between all of them.”
As its title suggests, In Translation features pieces that Hammill has translated from one European language or another, except for the three that were originally in English. It’s familiar territory for him – the Van der Graaf Generator vocalist famously collaborated with Italian proggers Le Orme on the English version of their 1973 classic Felona e Sorona – and his sense of kinship with our European neighbours is writ large across the new album.
“A sense of Europeanness is definitely a big part of it,” Hammill concurs. “The reason I’m capable of doing all these translations is that
I’ve spent so much time in France, Germany and Italy over the years. I never formally learnt languages, except for a bit of French at school, but my life experience is involved directly in the making of the record.”
Not content with delivering a solo record, Hammill will also release a new album with
“My life experience is involved directly in making this record.”
Swedish art rockers Isildurs Bane later this year. The follow-up to 2019’ s In Amazonia is entitled In Disequilibrium and it promises to be even stranger than its predecessor.
“It’s pretty wacky stuff, obviously!” says Hammill with a laugh. “But it’s also quite interesting and challenging, particularly for me to find where the vocal lines work and what it might all be about! There’s obviously some common ground between the band and I think we’ve found that.”
Meanwhile, he can also be heard on The Amorphous Androgynous’ extraordinary recent release, We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal. A psychedelic odyssey featuring cameos from Paul Weller, Caravan/Soft Machine alumnus Brian Hopper and a magnificent lead vocal from Hammill himself, it’s another unique creative feather in the prolific artist’s cap.
“I think it was in 2017 or so, when I originally did the vocals for that,” he says. “I’d met Garry [Cobain, The Amorphous Androgynous’ main man] years and years ago. He got back in touch and said, ‘Here’s a piece of music, do you think you can hear anything else on there?’ And I did!
“It’s interesting because all three of these records come from completely different musical universes, which is all to the good, I think.”
Finally, Hammill will return to live action with Van der Graaf Generator this autumn, all things being well. With European dates rescheduled and UK shows lined up for 2022, the band are looking forward to, as Hammill puts it, “making quite a racket” again.
“Last year we decided on the set we were going to play. That setlist is still on my bedside table and it hasn’t moved since I got back!” he says. “As a lucky rabbit’s foot, I’m going to leave it there until we do start up again. One can have a degree of confidence that things will be happening now!”
Visit www.sofasound.com for full details on In Translation and Hammill’s other musical projects.