Peter Hammill - All That Might Have Been

2014 release 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.