INTRO
PETER HAMMILL FINDS HIMSELF IN TRANSLATION
When the Van der Graaf Generator icon felt lost in Covid confusion, unable to explore his own ideas, a search for cohesion resulted in an album of cover versions.
IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE
Covered up: Peter Hammill translated the lyrics for his new album.
PRESS/JAMES SHARROCK
► Peter Hammill will release In Translation, his first ever covers album, on May 7.
The singer and musician pieced it together between March and December last year, resulting in renditions of works by a wide variety of artists and composers from Gustav Mahler to Leiber and Stoller.
He says that living through turbulent times of the Covid pandemic necessitated the detour into interpreting other people’s songs. “Everything was so uncertain last year that I didn’t feel in the right mental state to write or say anything from myself,” he says. “A month or so after lockdown started, I went into the studio, just for my own interest, and I started doing cover versions.