''A Grounding in Numbers'' is the eleventh studio album by the British rock group

Van der Graaf Generator Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Judge Smith, Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commerc ...

. It was released on 14 March 2011. This date, if written as 3,14, comprises the first three digits of the number π. The second track, "Mathematics", refers to

Euler's identity In mathematics, Euler's identity (also known as Euler's equation) is the equality e^ + 1 = 0 where : is Euler's number, the base of natural logarithms, : is the imaginary unit, which by definition satisfies , and : is pi, the ratio of the circum ...

, sometimes known as the mathematical poem. The album's release signals a continuation in the direction set by the current trio lineup, but it is released on a new label,

Esoteric Recordings Esoteric Recordings is a UK independent record label specialising in 1970s progressive rock, folk, psychedelic, and jazz-rock reissues as part of Cherry Red Records. Its releases include both catalogue reissues and new works from artists who s ...

, a departure from previous releases on Virgin/Charisma.

Hugh Padgham Hugh Charles Padgham (born 15 February 1955) is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 1 ...

is the mixer of the album.

Background

Preparations for the work on the new album began in late 2008 and early 2009, when the band members started gathering song fragments and exchanging "ideas, theories, policies and directions". In April 2010 the band met up for intensive sessions in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

where the whole album was arranged, rehearsed and recorded in the course of one week. Over the next months the tracks were overdubbed, edited and adapted by the band members (who were continuing to exchange files over the internet or on

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...

) in their own studios. By September 2010 the material was ready to be mixed and at that point

was approached. After three weeks in his London studio, ''Sofasound'', the album was completed.

Track listing

All songs by

Hugh Banton Hugh Robert Banton (born April 1949) is a British musician and electronic organ builder, most widely known for playing organ and keyboards with the group Van der Graaf Generator. Career Banton was born in April 1949 in Yeovil, Somerset, into a ...

Guy Evans Guy Randolph Evans (born 17 June 1947) is an English drummer and a member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Career Whilst at the University of Warwick (1965–68), Evans played in the university band which was called The ...

and

Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer/songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and ...

. # "Your Time Starts Now" – 4:15 # "Mathematics" – 3:38 # "Highly Strung" – 3:36 # "Red Baron" (instrumental) – 2:23 # "Bunshō" – 5:03 # "Snake Oil" – 5:21 # "Splink" (instrumental) – 2:37 # "Embarrassing Kid" – 3:07 # "Medusa" – 2:12 # "Mr. Sands" – 5:22 # "Smoke" – 2:30 # "5533" – 2:42 # "All Over the Place" – 6:04

Personnel

;Van der Graaf Generator *

–

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

(and

Ashbory bass The Ashbory bass is a solid body fretless bass guitar designed by Alun Ashworth-Jones and Nigel Thornbory. It is 18 inches long, almost half the size of a standard bass guitar. When amplified, the Ashbory reproduces the low, resonant bass tone of ...

on "Splink")Album notes for ''A Grounding in Numbers'' (2011). Esoteric Recordings. *

–

organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...

(including

bass pedals Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packaged ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

(and harpsichord, piano, glockenspiel, 10 string bass, guitar on "Smoke") *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(and guitar on "5533")

References

External links

*
A Grounding In Numbers
' at vandergraafgenerator.co.uk

* ttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/van-der-graaf-generator-a-grounding-in-numbers-by-john-kelman.php Van der Graaf Generator: A Grounding in Numbersreview at

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

Van der Graaf Generator – ''A Grounding in Numbers'' (2011) album releases & credits
at

Discogs.com Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the l ...

Van der Graaf Generator – ''A Grounding in Numbers'' (2011) album to be listened
as stream at Spotify.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Grounding in Numbers, A Van der Graaf Generator albums 2011 albums Esoteric Recordings albums