Peter Hammill
A Black Box

Year 1980.

Peter Hammill has behind him albums of the caliber of "In Camera," "Over," "Ph7," but he is about to release what many consider one of his absolute masterpieces: 'A Black Box'.

These are difficult times for this courageous artist, progressive is now faded and far from the Van Der Graaf Generator his name has never enjoyed the deserved success. Almost all the tracks are written and played by Hammill himself, except for an intervention by saxophonist David Jackson in one of the central tracks.

The album has very claustrophobic atmospheres given by the type of sounds used, a sober mix of synths and pianos far removed from what the mainstream was offering in those years.

Everything starts with the violent and irregular drums of "Golden Promises", perhaps the lesser track of the whole album, but certainly noteworthy. Already the following "Loosing Faith In Words" with its fluctuating keyboard loop makes the listener rejoice, who will soon find themselves a victim of the diabolical and unpredictable Hammillian rhythms. After the almost recited "Jargon King" comes a true masterpiece: "Fogwalking". The track encapsulates within itself the entire spirit of the album, a black and white nightmare pierced by the distant glows of David Jackson's sax. Next is "The Spirit", a violent ballad for guitar and voice in which Hammill revisits a theme very dear to the entire poetics of the New-Wave, the antithesis between spirit and body.

Following a hallucinated "In Slow Time" and the brief experimental passage of "The Wipe" comes "Flight", which with its 20 minutes originally occupied the second side of the "A Black Box" vinyl. "Flight" is a sort of condensed poem of our days in which life is compared, through rapid successions of highly successful metaphors, to an airplane flight. The track is a continuous alternation of calm moments and thunderstorms in flight, and it is all supported by Hammill's functional piano and his, once again incredible voice. Perhaps the last great progressive suite from the leader of the Van Der Graaf Generator.