INTRO
Frontman Peter Hammill reflects on atime of creative intensity and live ferocity.
Following in the wake of last year’s mammoth 14-disc box set, Interference Patterns, Esoteric dip back into the Van der Graaf Generator vaults with reissues of Still Life and Vital, due on March 29. Initially released in 1976, Still Life was VdGG’s second studio album after the band reformed to record Godbluff the previous year. Both of the reissues have been remastered and the former will be released on vinyl only, while Vital will be available on double vinyl and CD editions.
“The stars aligned for us. We felt there was work to be done,” says Peter Hammill about the 1975 reunion. “It was a headlong period. Van der Graaf were always a slightly bizarre ongoing movie, but we were probably at our peak in this period. We were touring an awful lot, we made three albums in the space of 13 months, hardly any time to think. Sometimes that’s a good thing.”
Still Life came together quickly. Hammill had already composed two of the album’s five tracks, the title tune and La Rossa, while writing for Godbluff, and the band’s recording approach had moved towards spontaneity.
“In the first period of Van der Graaf, we did an awful lot of studio experimentation,” he says. “In this period, we were pretty much playing live in the studio with just a couple of extra overdubs. From that point of view, you do it, you play it back, it’s there, it’s done, it is sort of a strangely weird out-of-body experience.”
Recorded live
