It's easy to say, when you're so down,
that everything's pointless
1997
From Far Away
5:37 minutes (5.15 MB)
Hammill co-wrote and sang on "Phosphorescence" and "From Far Away" on Saro Cosentino, Ones And Zeros.
Past Go - Collected
1. A Kick To Kill The Kiss
2. I Will Find You
3. Accidents
4. His Best Girl
5. Sharply Unclear
6. Patient
7. Planet Conventry
8. A Ritual Mask
9. The Noise
10. The Gift Of Fire
11. Traintime
12. Gaia
13. Your Tall Ship
All voices and instruments by Peter Hammill except:
Drums/Percussion: Manny Elias (2,5,8,9)
Violin: Stuart Gordon (3,5)
Organ: Hugh Banton (2,7)
Keyboards: David Lord (1)
Soprano Vox: Holly & Beatrice Hammill (5)
All songs by Peter Hammill except
Phosphorescence - Cosentino/Hammill
Personality - Peter Hammill/Holly Hammill
Air
6:52 minutes (9.44 MB)
Ayuo Takahashi's CD "Songs from a Eurasian Journey" is out in Japan on Victor (VICG-60011). I sing on and wrote the lyrics for six of the the songs. This project of Ayuo's combines his own music with really early stuff, from as far back as the 7th Century. I'm particularly happy with the (closing) song "Air" which is itself a celebration of the enduring power of song - and of the humanity that binds us together - expressed over a Japanese melody from at least 1300 years ago. Other contributors to this disc include Dave Mattacks and Danny Thompson and it was mixed at Terra by David Lord.
Bubble
6:30 minutes (7.45 MB)
Let's begin at the top:
there's no reason to think that this will ever stop,
so let's go back and start again;
in this finite uncertainty we'll circle round and then
sail a craft of self-conviction
across tomorrow-never-knows
where the surface stays unruffled
while the coral clusters quietly down below.
Cutting figures of pride and will
like Leonardo cartoons
we go flying formation in our hot-air speech balloons.
Can't go back, can't reverse...
no-one here really quite believes
The Union Chapel Concert
Guy Evans & Peter Hammill
1. Fireworks
2. A Forest of Pronouns
3. Anatol's proposal
4. After the Show
5. Roger and Out
6. Accidents
7. Soundbeam medley
8. Women of Ireland
9. Ship of Fools
10. Hamburg Station
11. Seven Wonders
12. Barber's Adagio for strings
13. Red Shift
14. Lemmings*
15. Traintime
* "one-off reformation" of Van der Graaf Generator.
Peter Hammill: vocals, guitar, keyboards
Guy Evans: drums, percussion, MIDI pads & samples, blue drums
Hugh Banton: organ
David Jackson: flute, saxes, soundbeam
Stuart Gordon: violin
Everyone You Hold
Everyone you hold
takes a piece of you away;
everyone you know
pricks the image of the human clay
and everybody's laughing -
the joke goes mouth to mouth and slips away.
Everyone you hold
leaves you something of themself;
everyone you told
spreads your secret on the warehouse shelf
and everybody buys it
for everyone's in commerce and in trade.
When every sweet embrace has faded
the voices dip, the faces dim and memory drifts away -
still you stay in everyone you hold.
Everyone you hold,
no, they never leave your side;
everybody knows
Can Do
When you're fingered by self-doubt, my dear,
no-one is innocent or guilty.
Chained, your reaction when you're on the spot:
the flower of faith is wilting.
But if there's something that you've left behind
there'll be something else upcoming...
make what you will, the future happens;
now this is something that you just won't find till later.
No disillusion or despair will be defeat,
no simple disappointment should stay you
get up upon your feet, (Don't you ever give up on me)
stand up: life is sweet (I will never give up on you)
with will we'll all shine through...
Falling Open
I see
what isn't there and what might be:
all the pages falling open.
Out of my grasp
the future floods my fingers:
the blood that binds the bone
for us a given, unforgiving known.
(All I've known unknowing)
Although I'm stumbling onward on the words
The script is always clasped
within my hand, encrypted. (Now I see)
A loosening grip,
a palm asweat from clenching...
the binding's ripped, leaves fluttering to the floor.
The book slips through my fingers,
all the pages falling open.
Phosphorescence
Across the ocean of the night
you turn and look into my eyes,
burn into my life.
Now the moment's magical
but we keep our silence
You could tell me anything you want,
you could tell me all your secret wishes;
only in our eyes, only in our eyes
we made the soul kiss
and we will never pass this way again
we will never know each other better;
ships pass in the night
and in their wake they leave just phosphorescence.
You could tell me any lies you want,
it wouldn't change the way I feel about this;
only in our eyes, only in our eyes
we made the soul kiss
