Van der Graaf Generator
Trisector

THE REVIEW

It's impossible to say anything new about this group, so it would be better for them to say the new things. A request not easy to fulfill, given the times.

Peter Hammill is, in my opinion, one of the greatest geniuses of world prog music and his VDGG was the most innovative and personal band of the entire movement, maintaining professionalism and coherence better than any other group.

The unexpected, I believe, is another characteristic of the band: no one bet a dime on the 2005 reunion, just as no one expected a further release under the name VDGG. However, despite the adversities, for the joy of our ears, here is this Trisector. The adversities can, in fact, be reduced to the quarrel (apparently due to economic and marketing issues) between Peter Hammill and the great saxophonist David Jackson, who is not present on the album, and his departure also determined the album's title.

When listening, the album does not present itself in the best way. Strangely, the least convincing track on the CD was placed first. The choice, if debatable on one hand because it creates some disappointment, generates - on the other hand - a listening experience that grows considerably and makes us admit that Hammill's choice is, once again, the right one. The album flows between slow and subdued tracks, magically played on warm atmospheres even fusion, and more aggressive tracks where Banton's organ intertwines with the electric piano or with Hammill's distorted and sometimes unrecognizable guitar. It’s impossible not to mention the splendid work of Guy Evans who, as the undisputed master of rhythm, liberates every metric imagination, often and abnormally becoming the melodic interlocutor of the keyboards. The musical counterpoints, real sonic walls, are the organ, the same as always, the one from the early '70s and Hammill's indestructible voice that weaves rich melodies full of sentiment as if they were the first he wrote in his career.

The tracks, apart from the aforementioned first instrumental "The Hurlyburly", would all be noteworthy, but it's worth highlighting the presence of "Over The Hill", a track with incredible evocative power, with an initial melodic line worthy of any great '70s album and a progressive development by the book. Also splendid is "Interference Patterns", a very intricate track with singing on the verge of the impossible and a rhythmic charge that gives goosebumps. Among the more subdued and relaxed tracks, I point out "Only In A Whisper" with a touch of jazzy electric piano that takes us back 40 years while simultaneously presenting a track extremely modern in conception and style.

I don't think there's any point in going further: this album confirms the great compositional period of prog in general and Hammill in particular, and it makes us hopeful for further new projects, perhaps with Jackson's return on winds, whose absence here - it must be admitted - is felt. For the rating, I would surely give it five stars, but in the now well-known scholarly style, it would be around a 4.6.