AFTER THE SILENCE - A SYMPHONIC POEM

Pythagoras sophomore LP after the quite promising debut "Journey Through The Vast Unknown" (1980) was released from a major recording company, (the first one was an independent release. This time René de Haan decided to have more than just drummer Bob de Jong to help him out with After The Silence; in fact he had several musicians with "real" instruments to play his new compositions, like guitar, bass, violin and flute. Among the people who played the guitarist was a very young Arjen Lucassen (of Ayeron fame and several other side projects nowadays), who took a little time from his band Bodine to record his firs professional session.

The results are quite interesting, helped by the better production. The sound is still basically a mixture of electronic with a more "classic" prog rock vein. a bit like early Pink Floyd. In fact, After The Silence is far more conventional sounding than their debut, although the electronic element is very much the basis of most of the tunes. The violin and guitar solos gave Pythagoras music more variety and colors, but the music in general here ended up being more tentative than convincing to my ears. The songwriting here seems to be still a little green, but they were in the right direction as far as I can tell. Still, some parts are very good and it´s obvious that the project had a lot of potential. It´s really a shame they did not record a follow up. And, considering the time it was put out, it is really a feat they did even managed to have a major recording company backing it.

Listening today, I feel this CD to be really pleasant and interesting, Nothing to write home about, but good anyway. If you like electronic music mixed with traditional rock instruments you should try this one. Tangerine Dream did it better, but this one has its merits.

Rating: 3 stars.