The persona that Peter Hammill represents on stage is much more than one or maybe more characters...It is the very art of storytelling integrated in its most authentic form, incarnated in a voice that over the years has become more and more necessary, more and more needed. We live in a very cheap season, with cheap needs, as cheap finery dress it up and throw it back in the arena even more naked from truth and light. So there is no room here for anything less than all, in the deep performance by Hammill all mean, all ARE right and that in itself is a challenge. A challenge to remember the original rhythm of the land that sometimes becomes a cry and sometimes a whisper, depending on the path that the soul and mind of Peter Hammill choose each time to be revealed to us and reveal us...
I saw him taking his place on stage next to the piano, at 9 sharp (as always punctual) and as the lights were lowering, I was wondering if this very man is the person I was talking to a few hours ago ... Incredibly friendly, full of humor and essential education on every level, but now the eternal gentleman of every time and music period was about to unfold before us once again the brilliant myth of his musical journey... So he was the same person within his so many persons. All those that for decades he forms through the inner pace of a deeper consciousness and the instinct of the beast that is loose in the arena of idiots, mediocre and unloved, with perhaps his only goal to make the passion for life and knowledge a sound conveying the breath of the universe, the thirst for CREATION... Those who have watched for years, know very well what I am talking about... That's why they were there in a packed 'Kyttaro' ready to travel with him again...
The first notes of My room from the magnificent 'Still life' by VDGG are showing the way, the crowd is in sync with him from the first minute, with the great Just good friends from the excellent 'Patient' following and then (a surprise to many) the amazing Unconscious life from 'Enter K'. Hammill's audience know for years the internal codes of the top artist and simply tuned more and more time in a really warm atmosphere that seems from time to time almost devout... Peter talks about his latest album ('Thin air'), puts us in his world with ease, introduces it on stage (with Mercy standing out from it) and then of course it's time to leave the piano, take the guitar and nail us to the floor through a series of top compositions in a truly great performance ... The comet, the course, the tail from the masterpiece 'In Camera' in a furious interpretation, If I could from the marginal 'The future now' with the public taking off and immediately after: Patient, Sitting targets, Ophelia, Traintime, Driven... The sense of time changed into something completely subjective and relevant ultimately ONLY to Hammill onto the stage without the safety of the band, or even the Stewart Gordon on his side as we were accustomed in the past ... He, the guitar and then again the piano... He is touchingly true in Friday afternoon from the excellent 'Singularity', but if I had to choose the song that for me marked the performance and character on stage, that is definitely A better time. You could almost hear his breath between verses and notes... You could even, if you were lucky, see a great artist and life's poet, transformed from a man 60 years old to a child then a teen and finally yourself who is glad because you are ALIVE, HERE, TODAY, NOW... I secretly look at my watch, I hold even more tightly her hands in my own, I know that we're heading to the end of a great evening and the first notes of Still life make everyone burst into incredible applause... Peter interprets it in a perhaps more mature lyricism than the sharp, wild days of VDGG and essentially regenerates it. The song ends, the crowd would not stop crying for 'more', a bow, a 'thank you' and the stage is empty, but fortunately not for long. The perfect encore was the gift by PH in all of us at the closing of a rare night. The birds ... But this time not at the piano (like always ..) but with a guitar and a naked soul to remain on stage even when he is gone...
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