In Camera (Peter Hammill album)

1974 studio album by Peter Hammill

In Camera

Studio album by

Peter Hammill

Released

July 1974

Recorded

December 1973 – April 1974

Studio

Sofa Sound, Sussex
Trident Studios, London

Genre

Art rock, progressive rock, experimental rock

Length

47:47

Label

Charisma

Producer

Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill chronology

The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage
(1974)

In Camera
(1974)

Nadir's Big Chance
(1975)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]

In Camera is the fourth solo album from the English singer-songwriter Peter Hammill. It was released in July 1974.

Much of the material was recorded in Hammill's home studio on simple four-track equipment. He then took the tapes to Trident Studios, where additional elements such as drumming from Van der Graaf Generator colleague Guy Evans, and layers of ARP 2600 analogue synthesizer were added. The album has a predominantly dark, gothic, claustrophobic feel, with the lyrics laced with apocalyptic, religious and existential imagery. "Gog" is a particularly intense and demonic song, featuring (even by Hammill's standards) strident and aggressive vocals, grandiose harmonium chords, and powerful drumming. This segués into "Magog", which is virtually a musique concrète piece of sinister drones, percussive noises, and including a ring modulated spoken vocal. Songs such as "Ferret and Featherbird" and "Again" are gentler offerings, and Hammill refers to the first as "something approaching a 'sweet' song".^[2] The album was dedicated to Hammill's brother, Andrew.

"Again" was re-worked for Hammill's 1984 album The Love Songs.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Peter Hammill

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ferret and Featherbird"	3:43
2.	"(No More) the Sub-mariner"	5:47
3.	"Tapeworm"	4:20
4.	"Again"	3:44
5.	"Faint-Heart and the Sermon"	6:42
Total length:		24:26

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	"The Comet, the Course, the Tail"	6:00
7.	"Gog"	7:40
8.	"Magog (in Bromine Chambers)"	9:41
Total length:		23:21

2006 CD bonus tracks from BBC One John Peel Sessions
No.	Title	Length
9.	"The Emperor in His War Room"	6:39
10.	"Faint-Heart and the Sermon"	6:05
11.	"(No More) the Sub-mariner"	6:12

Some CDs index "Gog" and "Magog..." as one track.^[3]

Personnel

Peter Hammill – vocals, piano (1–5, 8), acoustic and electric guitars (1, 3–6, 8), bass guitar (2–4, 6, 7), ARP 2600 synthesizer (2, 5, 6, 8), Mellotron (5, 8), harmonium (7)
Guy Evans – drums (3, 7)
Chris Judge Smith – percussion, backing vocals (8)
Paul Whitehead – percussion (8)

Technical

Peter Hammill – recording engineer (Sofa Sound, Sussex)
David Hentschel – recording engineer, ARP programming, mixing, "studio wizardry" (Trident Studios, London)