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TITRE:
PETER HAMMILL: IN TRANSLATION
TYPE:
SORTIES
GENRE:
ROCK
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PETER HAMMILL sortira le vendredi 07 mai 2021 son nouvel album In Translation via le label FIE!
Les pré-commandes sur le site FIE! sont possibles en cliquant ICI.
Ce que Peter Hammill dit de son nouvel album :
"When lockdown began early in 2020 I found myself, of course, in such an unbalanced and uncertain state that I didn’t really feel capable of writing or recording new material. Instead – to keep my hand in and myself occupied – I set about working on a number of cover versions. I had no specific plan at the outset and just went for a number of songs at which I felt I could have a decent crack. I became more serious about the venture the longer it went on.
Eventually the pieces presented in this collection seemed to fit together as a group, not least because most of them are to do with measures of dislocation, of loss, of an imagined future which didn’t arrive. To do with the 2020 experience, in short.
Only three of the songs here were originally in English and I’ve translated the rest. I’ve had a bit of experience of doing song translation over the years, from Italian, German, French. My approach has always been to make cultural rather than strictly linguistic translations, so that the spirit of the song rather than its precise narrative is rendered and I’ve continued to use that method here. (I went for translation of the songs because whatever the merits or failings of my vocal performances in these recordings may be, I definitely couldn’t have seen myself coming up with convincing work while simultaneously grappling with the delivery of authentic pronunciation.)
Many of these songs had fully developed orchestrations in their original versions and in order to get to my own arrangements I initially had to find out how these worked – unfamiliar territory though it was for me. Working with the dots has never been my forte. Thereafter I could choose what to retain, what to omit, paraphrase or warp. Having done so I ended up – albeit somewhat unconsciously – with something of a uniform instrumentation across the whole project.
Adding piano and giving it a central structural role moved things toward my normal sound palette, as did a sprinkling of acoustic guitars. Orchestral instruments are, of course, samples; at times these are interchanged with or augmented by synth sounds. Electric guitars often have an authoritative role to play. Here and there a bit of sonic murk/ FX/pad-dom crops up and there’s a place for a couple of glock moments as well. Finally, a few B Vox put in an appearance. So far, so PH and I hope I’ve managed to find a meeting point between the original settings and the norms of my own sound-world.
In turn, I’ve done my best to be true to the essential spirit of the songs in my own vocal performance, rather than going for something different or extreme for its own sake.
Many songs here are from the Italian canon and I had not been aware of several of them before this project. I’ve been off on a treasure hunt of Italian song, writers, singers and it’s been most enlightening. In particular it’s worth noting that many artists from the country have had a spectacularly more dramatic time of things than their equivalents elsewhere. I’d had an inkling of this in my previous experience but it’s now fully reinforced. I doff my hat to these sometimes complicated lives. In all this, I hope I’ve addressed the material, the writers, the original performers, with due and proper respect. Inevitably there’s spin here though: mine all mine.
These performances and arrangements are, as the title says, translations. The vocal performances in the original versions remain unparalleled and I am not attempting to outdo them in any way – as if I could. I’m grateful that they’ve lit up these songs in my life and my hope is that I’ve honoured them in this work.
Tough though it was that Covid was raging while I was making these recordings I was also filled with the dread of impending Brexit. Now the free travel around Europe which has been such a feature, pleasure and education in my adult life has ended and all the benefits of cultural exchange are gone with it. I wouldn’t have been able to approach or understand many of these songs without that experience and to lose it is piteous. So the making of this record is the act of a Briton who was, is and will remain a European, though one from whom rights have been stripped.
And yes, lastly: I’m well aware of the enormously privileged position in which I’ve found myself, being able to work on this material while all the normal things of life disappeared around us"
TRACK LISTING
01. The Folks Who Live on the Hill (Kern/Hammerstein), 02. Hotel Supramonte (De André/Bubola), 03. Oblivion (Piazzolla/Tarenzi), 04. Ciao Amore (Tenco), 05. This Nearly Was Mine (Rodgers/Hammerstein), 06. After a Dream (Fauré/Bussine), 07. Ballad for my Death (Piazzolla/Ferrer), 08. I Who Have Nothing (Magati/Mogol/Leiber/Stoller), 09. Il Vino (Ciampi/Marchetti), 10. Lost to the World (Mahler/Rückert)
FORMATION
Peter Hammill: chant, guitare, claviers
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EN RELATION AVEC PETER HAMMILL
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AUTRES ACTUALITES
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