Silhouette are a prog rock quartet from the Netherlands. It is formed by Brian de Graeve (g, v), Erik Laan (k, v), Jos Uffing (dr, v) and Gerrit-Jan Bloemink (bg). De Graeve, Laan and Uffing are vocalists and authors of the whole stuff, which fills “A-Maze” album. What’s interesting, each of them sings the tracks written by him, so on this album we have a cross-section of diverse aspects of male neoprogressive vocalization. However from the instrumental point of view, the band is coherent and plays very keyboards-dominated music, which is mostly peaceful, unhurried and melancholic.
On “A-Maze” short 3-4 minute tracks are in majority. Two recordings clearly stand out of them. These are: „Where Are You Now” and ”Ocean Of Life” (it is a good opening to whole album, which gives us a glimpse of an idea about the band’s style for the rest of it). There are also several tracks in which Silhouette attempt to play some more epic material. Especially two tracks placed at the end of the album make an impression in these terms. „Seize The Night” (de Greave’s vocal) is almost 10-minute long composition with several tempo changes and number of extremely interesting instrumental parts. However, the final track, “Long Distance” (Laan’s vocal) is even better. It’s dramatic song with very nostalgic atmosphere and a wonderful bombastic climax in the form of the impressive solo of keyboards. Silhouette members declare that they sought inspiration in the music of the masters of symphonic rock. They list Pink Floyd, Marillion, Genesis and IQ as their major inspirations. However, I’d say that the fans of those particular bands wouldn’t find any direct references to those groups in Silhouette’s productions. Maybe (although I know that this is rather far-fetched thesis) some instrumental parts on keyboards are reminiscent of the sounds, which we can come across in early Pink Floyd albums. In my opinion, Silhouette’s work will be appreciated by the fans of pure neoprogressive climates like those of Knight Area, Like Wendy or Metamorphosis. Maybe it’s not top prog music, but it won’t do any harm to try listening to the whole Silhouette’s album. It is undoubtedly worthy of getting to know this material composed by this very talented band.
Translated by: Kachat
