IMPERFECT SILENCE

Review originally published at www.lazland.org and recreated here for my very good friends, Mr T Szirmay and Jeremie Arrobas.

In my recent review of Massimo Pieretti's class album, The Next Dream, I remarked upon how class musicians who guest on a work tend not to be wholly mercenary and will work on a project only if they feel it is worthy of their input. Class tends to be choosy.

Well, to those comments, we can unequivocally state that this applies to Enigmatic Sound Machines, who also have a knack of attracting exceptional talent to assist them in realising their musical dreams. For their third album, Imperfect Silence, they have recruited the class flautist & saxophonist Rob Harrison of Z Machine who is based a few short miles from Lazland HQ in South Wales, the return of legendary prog/fusion bassist Hansford Rowe of Gong and Gongzilla, as well as guitarist Alain Roig alongside French fret man Alain Bellaiche of Heldon and Richard Pinhas.

ESM is the project of multi-instrumentalist, and much else besides, Jeremie Arrobas and Thomas Szirmay, who has written oodles of music reviews over the years on Prog Archives, House of Prog, and latterly with a thousand followers as Prog Rogue on Facebook.

This album takes the duo further down the progressive rock path than the previous two. It is a work which will appeal to those, like me, who love symphonic, orchestral layers to their keyboard-led music. The themes are very relevant to the world in which we live in 2025, a tired one of endless confusion, stress, depression, hardship, fear but, ultimately, hope for a better future. I share that. I despair as often as anyone else at the seemingly endless march into historical irrelevance of Western democracy but will always pull myself up by the bootstraps and remember the "glass half full" mantra I have tried to live by all my life.

There are eight pieces of music on the album lasting about an hour. The project has just had the incredible honour of being signed by Progrock Essentials, a label with an increasing importance and impressive stable of artists. The digital version will be available on 1st June, with a physical copy 1st August. I am extremely happy for them. Both are wonderful people, talented artists, and this project is making some strong noises in our progressive world. Let's discuss it and play some music.

The opening track is a very strong contender for this website's "instrumental of the year" award, with a nice play on words in the title, In Perfect Silence. I think there is such a mysterious quality to this piece, ethereal, pulling the listener in, and, as such, is the perfect opener, awash with synths, effects, and the dear old mellotron. The pair show that they have not lost their inherent sense of melody and playful pop-infused rhythm, and the Hansford Rowe bass melody here is to die for, the soundscape taken to a stratospheric level by the flute. It really is quite a beautiful piece of music, the synth-guitar adding a rock sensibility. Superb and delicately moving in places.

The Distance Between Here & Now is an interesting play on words. It is a long track at eight and a half minutes. Bellaiche is immediately noticeable with some delicate fretwork, Harrison leading the melodic charge over the thumping drums, the first vocals telling an interesting narrative, with God crying a thousand tears when he created the subject of the words, only lovers capable of rescuing this world of ours, the feel of a story veering between despair and hope. It's a dramatic piece which stays the right side of dystopian, the flute swirling and cascading a la Anderson at his most brazen, before Harrison introduces us to his saxophone work which is deeply seductive, tuneful in the manner of classic blues rock of yore, the closing passage being something you could quite happily dance to whilst under the influence in a ballroom full of sound. Enigmatic, for sure. House of Shadows follows. After a traditional electronica beat, we are merged with a pretty set of notes, a sax then taking us on a journey of mystery and hidden meanings, shadows peering in a song which doesn't fall into the trap of descending into a doom loop but is thoughtful and in the choral voices rather pretty as well. I think this harks back to shared memories but wants to move on, this achieved when the sax marks a light and playful mood.

Wrapped in Black is, pardon the pun, a dark title, and the opening notes are slow, almost funereal, but still performed with a pleasing lightness of touch which enables one to listen with the smile on your face the subject has never known. Depression is a relentless pit of despair that humans can fall into, the sense of self melting away. The stark change in mood musically at the three-minute mark makes you sit up and stare at the speaker, the sax now deeply reflective, a relentless beat underneath. Bellaiche produces a guitar solo dripping with Americana, moody, sliding, eyes closed, concentrating on recovering self. A stunning piece of music.

Hallow is up next. This has the feel of the electronica pop rock we heard in the first two albums, but with a lush jazz fusion infused texture added by Bellaiche on his guitar, the sax parping along to the lyrical prayer to a leader, cult, party, the societal curse of the modern age; we seem incapable of allowing ourselves the freedom to determine our destiny, instead pandering to the modern media and political gods. This song has so much going on, blues, jazz, pastoral, electronica, quietly symphonic, and I think it is entrancing, the loop as we close swirling around in your head.

Haunted I believe references the voices within as opposed to things that go bump in the night, and Arrobas provides us with a deeply "haunted" vocal here which I can't help thinking of Collins on his Home by the Sea, from where I suspect the overarching theme might have taken inspiration. It is a different work, but the tone of these vocals is very reminiscent, disturbingly so, actually. Harrison provides us with a masterclass in how a sax plays as lead instrument, whilst all the time, the soundscapes are revolving between your ears, the closing section quietening down for the act of internal struggle trying to resolve itself.

Endless Beginning is the penultimate track. The sax is achingly sad on this track, with a sense to me of a conversation, even a row, between loved ones, with thumping notes underlining the saxophone discussion and diatribe, angry, raging against the machine, with a perfectly pitched piano holding it together. This is as close as the act have got to what we might call heavy progressive rock, and it is very good.

We close with an instrumental bookend, Red Forest, which after 1986 became the most contaminated woodland on earth following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. It is the longest piece on the album, just a shade short of epic length. It is decidedly broody, and extremely well performed and produced, Arrobas really impressing here with his guitar work as well as his ability to produce a picture of a vast landscape once beautiful and unspoilt, but now a victim of the imbecility of man, the single piano notes so effective in painting a picture of despair, noises of the forest ghostly in remembrance of a once thriving environment, with two thirds of the way in, the entire track quietening down with the memories of the birdsong which once surrounded the senses, but as we close, the anger and determination led by the sax to try to reclaim, with Thomas then narrating the album themes, hallowed be thy name.

Progrock Essentials have signed ESM for a reason. They are very good, and this album is a very tangible progression on what was already impressive body of work. Very highly recommended, their website is at enigmaticsoundmachines.com

I don't give rating scores on my website, but for PA purposes, 4.5 stars. An excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

1. In Perfect Silence for the slightly pompous musical intro, a lyrical flight with a lot of solemn keyboards, piano, and flute for the track that's easy to listen to, nothing new on the horizon except the grandiloquence of the affable tune. 2. The Distance Between Here and Now with Rob's guitar and flute again, on a regressive folk tune from yesteryear; the vocal flirting with overdone Floyd vibes for a long monologue that loops; the nostalgic sax saves the track, vibrating while keeping the spirit of the past; it takes these last two minutes to finally get a sound worthy of 2020 and avoid falling asleep. 3. House of Shadows for its minimalist beat, pad of an 80s GENESIS, yes more than 40 years ago. The typical vocal can be jarring, raw on a melodic tune with a soporific metronomic drum machine. The sampled choir and then the old-fashioned sax plunge us back into the haunting atmosphere where I desperately await the end. The outro reminds me a bit of Wally Badarou. 4. Wrapped in Black, with its solemn spatial departure, the ship's departure for a prog land, finally magnificent. The vocals are reminiscent of an Alan Parson's melody without the innovative spirit; here, it's a soporific repetitive base. The mid-track break with sax and a sampled pad, too predictable, brightens the end of the track with Alain's slide guitar reminiscent of Ry Cooder, a finale that will be the musical cherry on the cake.

5. Hallow, packed with electronics, with a tune flirting with an Archange track; The guitar is still lively, melting, the sax regains its groovy side, the keyboard tries to find an atmosphere between solo and melodic repetition, boredom on this consensual track that stretches, stretches on the long, heady chorus. 6. Haunted with a beautiful electro sound, I breathe; after the annoying 80s clap today, warm vocals that keep you on the edge of your seat with the Phil Collins-like chorus, a good point. A bit of synth riff to shake things up, finally; the least of this linear refrain that brings nothing new. It still needs the typical sax on the worked synth to have this finale, lively but conventional without the innovative prog spirit, an ambivalent track that takes a while to take off, which suggests beautiful aborted things. 7. Endless Beginning with Rob's sax in front, a southern folk air on an imposing bass, the good side. The other side is the heady electric piano notes, played quickly, that bring this piece back to its Bontempi synth straitjacket, a shame because there was potential in this heavy, melancholic, and colorful hi-hat track. 8 Red Forest, with Rob's sax again, the mastermind of this group, in fact, spearheading the long, slow ambient buildup, a tune that can take its time here, like the ambient electronic sounds of TANGERINE DREAM. The keyboard is watery in the break, water and droplets falling from the leaves of this Chernobyl forest regaining a taste for life? The birds chirp, a little joy. A beautiful ambient jungle passage and a sweet melody with the return of the wolves, the only inhabitants of this unique region in the world. The final prophetic narration in the outro and the ending leave you speechless.