Peter Hammill

Even before dissolving his band, Van der Graaf Generator, in 1978, British singer/songwriter Peter Hammill was asserting himself as a solo artist on critically acclaimed albums that mined similar but not identical territory. While his former band can be sloppily pigeonholed as prog, Hammill's solo output relies less on synthesizers and more on his expressive vocals and openness to experimentation, with songs embracing anger-fueled punk, goth-like gloom, cabaret drama, and various shades along the art rock spectrum. After a heart attack in 2003, Hammill made a reunion album with his former band, but continued to release challenging and creative work on his own label as well.