Refuges: A Charisma Records Anthology tells the audio story of one of the most innovative labels of the '60s and '70s. Though this collection only spans a mere decade in the history of Rock (1969-78), it is a decade filled with musical innovation and excitement. Though most of their releases may have hovered outside the Top 40 in the U.S., the label's roster consisted of artists that are just as influential today as at any other time in the last 30-40 years. Features 44 tracks including cuts from Peter Gabriel, Van Der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Monty Pythons, Hawkwind, Bo Hansson, Rare Bird, The Alan Parson Project, Lindisfarne, Peter Hammill, Keith Emerson, String Driven Thing and many others.

Peter Hammill is an English singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano. He also acts as a record producer for his own recordings and occasionally for other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards.

For the first time ever, Peter has recorded a collection of cover versions. The songs come from a variety of musical worlds: Classical, American Songbook, Italian Pop and Tango. In all but three cases Peter has also translated the songs, from Italian, French and German. As strange a project as this might seem, there’s an overall sense of cohesiveness to it and it’s absolutely of this time. Two songs have lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein; the music for one is by Jerome Kern, the other by Richard Rodgers. Leiber and Stoller provided lyrics for “I who have nothing’, originally an Italian tune. Three Italian songs are at the core of the album, written (and originally performed) by Fabrizio de Andre, Luigi Tenco and Piero Ciampi. The two tango pieces were composed by Astor Piazzolla. Finally, there are two classical songs, respectively by Faure and Mahler.

Newly remastered 4CD box set by Peter Hammill featuring his first four studio albums issued on his own label, Fie! Records, between 1992 and 1996.

This is a very good example of early Hammill (Van Der Graag Generator) solo work, ably assisted by David Jackson's haunting sax. "Tapeworm" is a rocky, powerful number while "Again" is an evocative, sad love song. "Magog" is a succession of bizzare, echoing, dark sounds, totally unrepresentative of Hammill's work, probably recorded with a good sprinkling of humour and tongue pushed firmly into cheek.
Like Hammill's two previous solo albums ("Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night" & "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage") "In Camera" is a dark, emotional, experimental and at times insane journey that is difficult to digest. No one writes lyrics like Hammill and no one can sing with such passion and emotion either.

Boasting much stronger compositions than the preceding Fools Mate, Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night is regarded as one of Peter Hammill's (Van Der Graaf Generator) best albums. Although Hammill is still in piano/acoustic guitar mode, the passion in his vocals is nearly unparalleled. But what separated Hammill from other early-'70s folk-rockers was that he had a knack for injecting art rock into his compositions and singing his mellow songs in a rough (rather expectedly laid-back) style. The opening track "German Overalls" could be compared to David Bowie's early acoustic period, as well as "What's It Worth" (the latter containing flute work that complements Hammill's acoustic strumming nicely). But Hammill successfully slips back into rock territory with "Rock and Rôle," which contains some great, dirty sax work…

This is how it came about: Prior to the effort in question, Hammill and Roger Eno chose a key in which to begin, and a specific time at which their performances would start. Then, sitting in their respective studios, miles apart, and with no communication whatsoever, they began to improvise, using various instruments. After one hour exactly, both ceased performing. Eno packed his tape off to Hammill, who then mixed the results together, producing an hour-long master. An experiment that might well have resulted in cacophonous terror actually yielded engaging and extremely palatable results, with a variety of keyboard sounds, Eno's cello, piano, and guitars weaving through the mixture. There is a haunting quality to The Appointed Hour, as well as an underlying harmonic strength that supports repeated close listening.

One of the best of Hammill's early solo albums. The thought-provoking, questioning lyrics of "Forsaken Gardens" and "A Louse Is Not a Home" query the fundamental premises of modern society (a theme later continued on The Noise) while "Rubicon" is a truly sensual love song. Throughout the album, Hammill's vocals scour the depths and reach to the skies and explore every place between sometimes harsh, sometimes as gentle as a lullaby. Always effective.

‘In a Foreign Town / Out of Water 2023’ is a new project by Peter Hammill. which features new reworkings of two of Peter’s landmark albums originally released in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

The Amorphous Androgynous return with the symphonic, 40-minute prog space-rock concept album ‘We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal’. The album contains 5 epic parts, featuring the legendary Peter Hammill (the Van Der Graaf Generator) on vocals alongside a host of musicians including: Paul Weller (piano and guitar), Ray Fenwick (Spencer Davis Group/Ian Gillan) on lead guitar, Brian Hopper (Caravan/Soft Machine) on sax. The Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and a 25-piece live orchestral string section round out this sumptuously-recorded album.

Peter Hammill first came to prominence as the founder member and voice of the legendary progressive rock group Van der Graaf Generator. Alongside his work with Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill has enjoyed a long career as an innovative and ground-breaking solo artist. Beginning with his first solo album 'Fool's Mate' in 1971, Peter recorded a series of acclaimed albums for both Charisma Records and Virgin Records covering a wide range of moods, but all undeniably and uniquely original and ground-breaking. Peter Hammill's work has been hailed by musicians such as John Lydon and David Bowie who expressed their admiration for his albums and his song writing. This super deluxe box set comprises all 13 albums released by Charisma and Virgin, all newly remastered from the original master tapes, along with new 5.1 and stereo mixes of 'The Future Now' and 'pH7' by Stephen W Tayler, rare BBC sessions and live recordings and a Blu-ray video disc of rare previously unreleased European television performances.

The Future Now is the seventh studio album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1978. It was the first solo album Hammill released following the 1978 breakup of his band Van der Graaf Generator, although he had released numerous solo albums while VdGG were active. The album contains twelve short songs, several in the new wave style of VdGG's last studio album, The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome. The album cover shows a set of photographs by Brian Griffin, portraying Peter Hammill with half of his moustache and beard shaven. "If I Could" was re-worked for Hammill's 1984 album The Love Songs.

All That Might Have Been, issued in the same year as Other World, is Peter Hammill's excellent duet offering with guitarist Gary Lucas, and it's among the most intellectually challenging, conceptually sprawling, and musically satisfying offerings in his career. Given its heft, it is more than likely that this is a record he couldn't have made when he was younger. It is the work of a master in full control of his vision. Described by Hammill as "cinematic by design," it features 21 tracks which were deliberately edited to be incomplete. Taken together they create a conscious narrative; its scenes are sonic episodes that move backwards and forwards just as an actual film would. This is not the same thing as creating a soundtrack without a movie, this is both: a soundtrack and an aural movie. Hammill wrote and recorded the songs in full, then slashed them apart, and stitched the story together from the fragments…

"Symphonic bombast, where synthesizers encounter horns, strings and world-music instruments, giving Hammill's voice the background to singing his stories from Amazonia. This is the high progressive art, without being forced into progressive rock drawers."

Originally released in 2004 on CD only, ‘Incoherence’ was formed of 14 songs that were all linked together to form one continuous piece of music, the first time in many years that Peter Hammill had taken this approach. All the pieces had a common lyrical focus on miscommunication and failures of language. Upon its release, the album was highly praised by both fans and critics and is one of Peter’s most acclaimed later works. ‘Incoherence’ was completed immediately prior to Peter suffering a heart attack. After taking some time out to recuperate. he now explains: “When I returned to the studio, I didn’t really have the inclination to go back over the mixes, so ‘Incoherence’ was eventually released with the original ones. At a certain point I began considering a vinyl release for the album and realised that I’d have to do some element of a remix in order to find a split point. When I went back to look at the tracks, I got the idea that I could now do a much better job of a mix than I’d originally done. So, gradually, I pressed on with it. I also decided that this time it would be interesting to have a version of the album split up into the individual songs, finally exposing the original start and end points.”