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Roger Eno & Peter Hammill - The Appointed Hour

Artist:	Roger Eno & Peter Hammill
Title:	The Appointed Hour
Label:	Fie! Fie9120
Length(s):	60 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	12/1999

Line up

Roger Eno - keyboard, guitar
Peter Hammill - whatever

Tracks

1)	Up	2.33
2)	Are They	2.01
3)	Your Heart	5.57
4)	And Let This	2.25
5)	Wise Men	4.00
6)	So How	1.43
7)	To Know	1.40
8)	Fools	3.32
9)	In	1.14
10)	Where	2.59
11)	To Tread	2.01
12)	Fool Rush	2.56
13)	Fear	3.22
14)	Open	1.34
15)	Never	3.36
16)	Rush In	0.57
17)	But	3.11
18)	In Love	5.12
19)	Angels	5.02
20)	Fall	4.09

Summary

Two musicians recording an hour of music simultaneously, but without any contact. To their surprise the music coincided to a large extent and the result is now here available on disc.

The music

With so many track it can hardly be done to give a track by track account. However, I will give it a try. Up opens with slow piano playing and some echoing keyboards in the back. All very peaceful. The piano stays throughout Are They, but the effects are a bit more estranging and the number of notes per minute goes up somewhat. Still the music is very relaxed and somewhat on the darkish side. In Your Heart the music gets a bit more lively with higher pitched keyboards, but we quickly return to the moodiness of earlier. If you want comparisons, then Sonix by Hammill is not that far off. The music has a lot of soundscape in it, being mostly shards of sound sculpted together, instead of composition of any kind. Of course, this is not so strange, the music being improvised by two different people in different places. There are traces of violin (all synthetic I would think) and the piano continues to be featured a lot, but always playing on the downside. Wise Men is not less dark with disquieting effects and long soothing tones. The music can be called meditative here and up to now, this is as much 'melodic' material as I've ever heard. Even some guitar in here, echoed and disjointed and looped. In Fools the piano plays a very nice melody but again those disquieting effects in the back. On Where I feel the presence of David Thomas' recent work on which also Hammill participated. The plucked guitar evokes the atmosphere of the American Mid-West. Then the guitar becomes a bit more pronounced and melodic. Sometimes I can hear echoes of Hammills older work such as in Fool Rush. I can't be sure of course that it is Hammill playing the piano, but something reminds me of his work. Fear sounds quite complex in its interweaving of various parts while Open is a rather disturbing piece with string like sounds. Never is also a rather disturbing track. Makes me think of a dark morass. In Love is not the sweet romantic track you might expect. With the soundscapes as heard on Everyone You Hold and some flute like playing it is similar to the previous, but with some sirens at the end. The last few tracks bring nothing new.

Lots of Fools in the titles, but then again it was April 1st.

Conclusion

Music for headphones. Subtle, peaceful, tranquil. All these things and dark and somber as well. Rather freefrom, but still meaningful, at least to me. Music to put on late at night, to relax by, to dream away on perhaps. The stillness before the storm, a waveless sea at dusk. That is how I see it.