The Official Off The Edge Website - Albums

Tracks:

Ascend, part 1 (Hanmer) [1.49]
Ascend, part 2 (Hanmer/Rogers) [2.29]
Ovation (part 1) (Hanmer) [7.56]
Blueprint (Hanmer) [4.17]
Origin (Hanmer) [2.11]
Underoverture (Hanmer/Rogers) [8.20]
Addiction (Hanmer) [2.28]
Introduction (Hanmer) [2.40]
Dreams (aka Applause) (Hanmer) [3.13]
Crossing (Hanmer) [2.20]
Space Dream (aka Pulsar) (Hanmer) [1.15]
Ovation (part 2) (Hanmer) [0.51]
Reprise (Hanmer) [4.41]

All instrumentation by Peter Hanmer.

Recorded at Foxglove Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa

Release information:

September 2000, no catalogue number - special limited edition - originally released in January 2000 with a slightly different track listing.

Buy CDs:

Buy Off The Edge CDs online from Sugar Music Online Store.

Comments:

'Dreams' was re-recorded with vocals by Age Of Innocence and released on the 'Nowhere Land' CD in March 2001.

This CD features one track (Underoverture) that although slightly self indulgent, was written in 1975 with a school friend, Owen Rogers. The idea was originally Owen's and I adapted the original idea for the CD.
- Peter Hanmer, November 1999

Review:

SA Rock Digest, February 2001
Kurt Shoemaker, Blanco, Texas

Wow, talk about mature rock, beautiful rock, soaring and inspired rock! On 'The Instrumentals', Peter Hanmer's guitar does the singing so no vocalist is needed. At the risk of sounding trite and clichéd, the music goes beyond rock by taking the listener through time and space, yet it is always rock solid playing.

This is a masterful album, absolutely masterful. The guitar leads the other rock instruments through movements. The 13 tracks on the album flow from one to the next without seams, and some tracks are musically linked. The album opens with a gentle intro, moves into some elaborate rock numbers, eases up, then rocks again. Even during a languid number, the music moves. Always, the music conveys many emotions.

This CD demonstrates an electric guitar's usefulness as a symphonic instrument, and here almost the entire symphony itself, in the rock form. Sound pretentious? I don't mean to be -- it's just that this music, this rock music, has power and majesty while keeping its feet solidly planted in its rock roots.

The liner note says that "all instrumentation" is by Peter Hanmer. That means especially the guitar. Peter plays so effortlessly, the notes fly from the strings as if his guitar is alive and singing.

This CD has passed the teenager test, too -- I played this for some students of mine while they wrote in their journals, and they enjoyed it and asked about it. After class, one student even came up to me to ask where he could buy the CD. So my next online order will include a copy of 'The Instrumentals'.

About a year ago, I reviewed Off the Edge's great 'On the Run' CD and suggested something to the effect that I thought some of the finest rock rock was instrumental, if it was made by musicians who had already worked through many of the rock forms. 'The Instrumentals' is the full flowering of that prediction and I'm grateful to Peter for making it come true. 'The Instrumentals' is a mature, wonderful, beautiful, rocking, and singing-guitar piece of work.