Peter Hammill - ARTmania Festival, Sibiu, 07.08.14

To this incredible, bright artist do I owe my very brief return here, in order to relate with great excitement, for whomever might take pleasure in reading it, my experience at this concert - or, more appropriately and truthfully, this recital. This sort of rekindled passion was probably my biggest surprise. It's safe to say that prog is something I've grown out of, the past couple of years (as well as getting out of touch, even if with sincere apologies, with the community). That doesn't mean, of course, that I've stopped listening to the masters, paying attention to new finds (even though though I find myself growingly impatient with fresh releases rather than with the older stuff I may have neglected) and going to any significant concert I might get the chance to. But these things are usually fated with mixed results; for instance, my long dreamed attendance at a Tangerine Dream concert - basically my favourite band ever - turned into an utterly dire affair, with music that felt almost dead at its core.

This, however, was an entirely different matter. First of all, it was pretty much a phenomenon for Peter Hammill to be playing for the very first time in Romania. The fans, whether local or foreign (given that Sibiu / Hermannstadt is a highly multicultural city), certainly didn't shy away. The rather intimate and improvised venue, inside Brukenthal Museum's inner garden, ended up being packed, with a dozen more people standing beside the 350 or so seated. Heavy clouds loomed dangerously throughout the entire evening, but didn't break upon us in the end - not that it seemed likely that this would have discouraged anybody, Hammill least of all wary or anxious about it! A mixture of hype and the feeling of meeting a musician you probably listened to and liked your whole life naturally amped the enthusiasm - Hammill himself going from gracefully acknowledging the loud cheers he received even before playing a single note, then nodding with a both cheeky and purely happy look to the audience after each song, to feeling absolutely pleased as punch by the end of it.

Of course, one can get such pleasures from any prog gathering in the company of legends of the genre. Years ago, at concerts like these, I would joke about feeling like a rookie or a greenhorn amidst veteran fans, who'd pull out and wear their favorite band shirts for the occasion, would geek about the music, the records and "the days" and would cheer and clap at the first sounds of every classic or favourite song. But perhaps my own years as a progger (closing on a decade, as much as I can remember) weighed in this time. Not sure how much I declared this on the forum back in the days, but Hammill along with VdGG were probably the ones I ended up identifying with the most (once they suddenly clicked to me, that is), with their intellectual, poetic, mysterious and slightly knotty ways of making music. Having already seen VdGG, I guess that - Hammill duos with Gordon or Lucas notwithstanding - the circle is pretty much closed. But Hammill's recital alone probably resonated with every fan there, young or old, in the same manner.

What made it all the more special for me was hearing Hammill precisely the way I imagined, the way I recognize and acknowledge him on his music (something I also felt about Laurie Anderson, when I heard her live a few years ago) - not only did he not give up on his (old) virtues, but actually brought forth nothing else, never trying to change or spice up anything. In its simplicity and almost candidness, in the form of accompanied chansons (played from the heart, except for The Mercy from the still quite recent Thin Air), was this recital at its most gratifying.

Switching from the piano to the guitar and back, it was a very balanced three-part show. In his own words, he leaned more on the older material, interspersed with "comparatively newer" songs, given the occasion of playing for us for the first time (but, to be fair, this sort of playlist did pretty much resemble his recent concerts which he recorded and released in the PNO GTR VOX collection). Of course, "older" for him meant just as well playing his better or familiar songs from the 80s rather than actual 70s classics, though he did grace us with a couple, like The Comet, The Course, The Tail and Modern, as well as a handful of VdGG songs (I failed to recognize any apart from the encore, which I won't spoil for now; if The Siren Song and Last Frame, from the late 70s Quiet Zone, could slip perhaps anyone's memory, I did, to my shame, forget how Still Life sounded).

His form was overall really admirable, my early worries truly dispelled as soon as he started playing. Sure, there were slips of notes on the keyboard, risky falsettos and a tad too much obstinacy for long vibratos on syllables, as well as a bit of a stumble on the opening rhythm of The Comet..., but I believe all these were pardonable. At his 65-year-old, visibly frail constitution, his spirit nevertheless shone through, his voice echoing deeply across the garden, his charisma, emotion and intensity as bright as ever. I honestly liked every bit of this set, except perhaps for Driven, from the stronger, rocked out selection played on the guitar; also, while I initially felt the long and contemplative A Way Out was kind of stretched... out, I had to appreciate in the end the sheer delicacy of the soft, fleeting harmonies and weeping, breathed words. If Still Life was quite something, at the end of a gradually more satisfying set, he afterwards really melted our hearts with an encore of Refugees, in which every arpeggio felt poignant and every verse anguishing, all being nonetheless very fulfilling.

P.S.: I am god-awful when it comes to recognizing songs and such, but upon doing some research, I believe this was the playlist of the evening:

The Siren Song [VdGG - Quiet Zone]

Don't Tell Me (Enter K)

Just Good Friends (Patience)

A Better Time (X My Heart)

Stranger Still (Sitting Targets)

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The Comet, The Course, The Tail (In Camera)

Amnesiac (X My Heart)

Driven (Clutch)

Last Frame [VdGG - Quiet Zone]

Modern (Silent Corner)

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The Mercy (Thin Air)

A Way Out (Out of Water)

Traintime (Patience)

Still Life [VdGG - Still Life]

+ Refugees [VdGG - The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other]