Recipient of the Visionary Award at the first Progressive Music Awards in 2012, Peter Hammill could well be argued to have had as much influence on British punk and new wave as on progressive rock. Yet as a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator, his feet have been planted in that genre since the band first dipped their toes in its early psychedelic pool in the late sixties.
His unmistakable voice, lyrics, guitar and piano led Van der Graaf Generator to critical acclaim across the seventies, and to their return this millennium as a killer force of elder statesmen still to be reckoned with, all while he sustained a singular solo career alongside.
He now returns with his first new work in five years, Tears In Time, a collection of eleven reflective songs recorded at various locations between 1991 and 2026. It is said to stand as a deeply personal and compelling new chapter from one of Britain’s most singular musical voices.
Across more than five decades, Hammill has built an extraordinary body of work that challenges expectations while remaining emotionally direct and artistically fearless. As the driving force behind Van der Graaf Generator, he helped define a more adventurous, uncompromising edge of progressive music. Alongside it, his solo work has ranged from fierce experimental rock and intimate piano-led confessionals to electronic abstraction, chamber-like atmospheres and profound late-period reflection.
In 1992 he established his own Fie! label to curate that independent work, beginning with the acclaimed Fireships, an introspective collection praised for songs such as ‘I Will Find You‘, ‘Curtains‘ and ‘Gaia‘. A year later he revealed a more rock-oriented side with The Noise, further underlining the breadth of his songwriting.
Tears In Time continues that tradition with quiet authority. Drawing together recordings made over an extended span, its eleven songs are shaped by memory, experience and reflection.
“These songs have been a long time in the gestation and making,” Hammill said. “I’m pleased with the way they’ve worked out. They seem to hang together as a group, even though there’s a wide range of styles represented here. I’ve not stopped yet and I’m very happy that songs still seem to find their way into my hands.”
The tracklist runs ‘For A Rainy Day‘, ‘The Wheels‘, ‘Heavy Weather‘, ‘Angle Of The Curve‘, ‘So Much Water‘, ‘Tabula Rasa‘, ‘Oh The End‘, ‘Red Flags (In The Sunset)‘, ‘You’ll Never Know‘, ‘The Half Of It‘ and ‘And When He Ran‘.
