When I looked at the pictures inside the booklet of Imperfect Silence, released by Enigmatic Sound Machines, I thought this act features the two famous actors Pedro Pascal (known for his roles in Narcos, The Equalizer 2 and Gladiator II) and the late Donald Sutherland (known for his roles in the movies Don't Look Now and Klute and for his role in the video for Kate Bush's 1985 single Cloudbusting). Of course I was was wrong. But you probably can't deny that both musicians on the pictures resemble the two well known actors. But who are on the pictures instead? To answer this question I will tell a bit about the band's history as well. Enigmatic Sound Machines is mainly a two persons musical project which is based in Montreal, Canada. They are a retro-futuristic project, the brainchild of two childhood friends with a common love for music, philosophy, and the arts. They are: Jeremie Arrobas (Donald Sutherland) is a founding member of Men Without Hats, a pioneer of electronic music, a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, writer, composer, arranger, and producer. Creator of hundreds of audio, video, and visual arts projects. Thomas Szirmay (Pedro Pascal) is a prog musicologist, researcher, producer, actor, vocalist and writer. Specialist in progressive rock, jazz fusion and electronic, and has written over 1600 reviews on internet platforms Prog Archives, House of Prog, the French language Profil Prog as well as his Facebook page called Prog Rogue. In the past the duo released the albums Telepathic Waves (2023) and The Hierarchies Of Angels (2024). Both available as download albums only. And now for the first time they released a real physical CD. Thanks to ProgRock.com Essentials everybody can buy or hold in his hands a copy of Imperfect Silence. Imperfect Silence was recorded with the following line-up of musicians; Jeremie Arrobas/ keyboards and synthesizers, lead vocals, composer Thomas Szirmay / sound machines, backing vocals, production Rob Harrison / sax, flute Alain Roig / guitars (3,6) Alain Bellaiche / guitars (2,4,5) Hansford Rowe /bass guitar (1) The music on this album is mainly instrumental and rather laidback. The songs are moving into the direction of electronic music. Arrobas is responsible for the vocal parts on the album but he is not a real great singer. Next to the many synthesizers it is easy to say that the saxophone has on this album a rather big leading role. Just listen to songs such as The Distance Between Here And Now, House Of Shadows, Wrapped In Black, Haunted and Endless Beginning and you do know what I mean. Meaning lots of saxophone parts can be heard throughout those tracks! I will not go into detail about every track separately. But one of my favourites and therefore one of the musical highlights is for me definitely the opening tune In Perfect Silence. Beautiful layers of synthesizers make the difference music wise. Also Hallow is a nice track and sounds a bit like Digging In The Dirt which was once a hit single released by Peter Gabriel in 1992. Also the Pink Floyd sounding The Distance Between Here And Now is a rather enjoyable tune. But overall you can say that the songs are rather mediocre. Most compositions kind of coast along without anything special happening that will have you on the edge of your seat. And that's a shame, because as a progressive rock fan, you want some variety in the music. This is achieved through the use of beautiful solos and tempo changes. Something I find somewhat lacking on this album. The songs aren't all equally difficult to digest, so the more seasoned proghead might find themselves a bit bored. Don't get me wrong, Imperfect Silence is by no means a bad album. But music lovers sometimes crave something more musical. Of course, the musicians of Enigmatic Sound Machines have enough talent to ensure their next album offers a bit more variety. Hopefully, that will happen on the next album. ***- Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
