Peter Hammill
The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage

A few nights ago, on a very snowy February evening, some friends and I were discussing the common concept of "pop," or at least the current (and unfortunately often derogatory) definition of the term. Perhaps it was the coziness of the beer going around, or the laid-back atmosphere while the snowstorm raged outside (alright, it's a cliché image, but absolutely true, as evidenced by various exuberant news reports on the subject); but from my "moralistic" view of music as Art, I almost reached the point of legitimizing the existence of MTV "artists" or summer hits. A concept that automatically diminished as soon as I got home and, relaxed by the quiet evening, began listening intently to an album I'd heard praised: "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage," a work by Peter Hammill (for those who don't know, the leader of Van Der Graaf Generator) from 1974.

Without a doubt, a work that finally made me feel the same sensations as my first listen of Pawn Hearts, a few years ago. An LP to cry over, in the happiest and most radiant sense of the term. A varied yet coherent collage that pierces through the best of British music (and beyond) of the period, maintaining an exceptional and priceless personality. Technically, for the English artist we are talking about music not so far removed from the best works of the Generator (present in this LP in full): an intimate, dramatic progressive rock but never excessive, dominated by Hammill's surprising creativity. A wizard of the voice, and also a remarkable multi-instrumentalist, a great songwriter of songs and lyrics. All this creative potential channeled into works that are always interesting, often masterpieces but never less than dignified.

The opening "Modern," with its dissonances and its never cacophonous tension exemplifies the modernist side of the LP, continuing with the contrast of the calmer "Wilhelmina," exemplary in its refinement. It is an enveloping triumph of sounds that, consistent with the term progressive, starts from a "earthly" dimension of music (rock, jazz, classical, ambient) and, gathering different influences (even reaching the most acidic psychedelia with "The Red Shift"), ascends to a plane between the dreamlike and the spiritual. Grandiose words that would seem out of place for many; but not for Hammill, not for one of the greatest artists of modern English music. A secular prayer dedicated to Art, in its primary purpose: the exaltation of the interiority and the communicative urgency that only great personalities can have. All concluded with the twelve minutes of "A Louse Is Not A Home," which stands proudly alongside the historic "A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" from a few years earlier.

And now, writing this review and listening to this work once again, I ask myself the question again: to what extent must we legitimize the existence of yet another ephemeral pop star that daily poisons TV and radio; how can we consign to the realm of music for enthusiasts this "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage," while the recording industry machine recycles, composes mosaics of plastic, and passes them off to you as new frontiers of sound. While albums like these remain untouchable, as if wrapped in an aura of crystal, timeless, exquisitely anchored to their era but, still in 2012, impressively relevant.