Time Vaults is an album by Van der Graaf Generator. It was originally released in 1982 on cassette only, almost four years after the break-up of Van der Graaf Generator in 1978. Later it was released as a vinyl LP, and in 1992 it was released on CD.
The album contains out-takes and rehearsal recordings from the period 1972-1975, when the band was on hiatus. The recordings "are not studio-quality recordings",[2] some of them have even a quite bad audio quality full of distortions. Among others, it contains before unreleased pieces taken from first rehearsals by the reformed Van der Graaf Generator from 1975, like the tough song "Rift Valley". The bad sounding rehearsal versions of "Roncevaux" and "Black Room" are 2 songs played live in mid-1972, and were originally intended for a probable next album in late 1972.
"Coil Night" features Peter Hammill on bass guitar and David Jackson on piano. The title track "Time Vaults" is a collage consisting of several unreleased pieces mixed with studio chatter. A different version of "Black Room" appeared on Peter Hammill's solo album Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night. "Faint and Forsaken" is a combination of the instrumental middle passages of "Forsaken Gardens" and "Faint-Heart and the Sermon", different versions of which appeared on Peter Hammill's solo albums The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage and In Camera respectively.
Track listing[]
"The Liquidator" (Hammill) – 5:24
"Rift Valley" (Hammill, Jackson, Evans) – 4:40
"Tarzan" (Hammill, Jackson, Evans, Banton) – 2:09
"Coil Night" (Jackson) – 4:12
"Time Vaults" (uncredited) – 3:33
"Drift (I Hope It Won't)" (Banton) – 2:40
"Roncevaux" (Hammill) – 6:55
"It All Went Red" (on some pressings incorrectly called "It All Went Up") (Hammill) – 4:07
