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This is a weird one... An audience recording of a studio outtake :-)
Be forewarned that quality is what it is, and don't expect a studio sound!
Quite well known among PG's students of his most obscure items, "Undercurrents" is a 14 minutes instrumental piece that was written originally as the ambient soundtrack for an exhibition by painter Graham Dean, whom he was introduced to by David Rhodes (if I remember correctly, you can find more details on how this came about in Spencer Bright's biography).
The track was subsequently passed on to the Italian theatre group Assemblea Teatro, which used it on two occasions: the theatrical piece "Le città invisibili", based on Italo Calvino's work, and "Rock Shots", an exhibition by well known Italian photographer Guido Harari.
"Rock Shots" had its premiere in Torino, then moved on to Milano (where I went to see it, in the old deconsecrated church of San Carpoforo, together with a couple of friends) and finally to Barcelona.
Though it might appeal to those who enjoy the most obscure electronic genre, the 'music' itself is NOT for the casual PG listener: quite dark and atmospheric, even Birdy-like at times, it almost completely lacks any kind of melodic and even rhythmic structures, with passages that phase in and out without much apparent 'sense'.
PS: To read more about how this recording came about and the troubles it is marred with, just check the video on its YouTube page...
Don't have much time to write a proper review/memory of the gig, but here's a clip of Sledgehammer from the first of 2 "interesting & unusual" - but always excellent! - shows in Milan, at the small(ish) Alcatraz club.
The shows came out of the blue, were announced - and sold out in a matter of hours - even before the new album Up was out. (Incidentally, it's funny to think that it is STILL his latest 'normal' studio album :-).
The "newness" of it all was actually very evident from every point of view: the material performed, the presentation and the band's "tightness".
It was probably only the 4th or 5th show with a group of musicians which included the usual suspects (Tony Levin and David Rhodes) and a bunch of newcomers (Richard Evans, Ged Lynch, Rachel Z, Melanie) who did in fact become 'the' PG band for the next 10 years (with the single exception of Rachel, whose place was later taken by Angie Pollock).
Over the 2 shows Peter played almost every track on Up, and the accent was definitely more on the musical than the visual side.
Peter was wearing some weird looking monitoring headphones (instead of the in ear system favoured today), and looked like he had forgotten what to do on a stage... After all his last proper bit of touring went back to 8 years before, for the Secret World shows. Amazingly, the clip shown here is one of the only 3 moments during the concert that he left his position behind the piano and moved to the front of the stage to interact with the audience (the other two being the finale of Growing Up and the encore of In Your Eyes).
A final note to mention that the sound comes once again from an excellent recording by the Digital Brothers.
