Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Eloy
Label: EMI Records
Released: 1979
Rating: 4.5/5
After the release of their best album “Ocean” (1977) and their first live album “Live” (1978), Eloy were at the peak of their creative powers. With “Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes” they didn’t just score their biggest commercial success, since it outsold everything they had put out before or would put out after, they also made a more than worthy successor to “Ocean”, the album that crowned them as one of the most consistent and resilient prog rock acts of the day. At the end of the 70s, when prog was already deep in a commercial and creative slump, Eloy couldn’t have cared less about the musical trends of the time, punk first and foremost, and just kept cranking out excellent space rock, a style that had already hit its commercial peak four years earlier, when Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” (1975) achieved practically everything there was to achieve commercially in the genre. And it’s precisely Pink Floyd, one of the few prog bands that were still hugely popular back then and who had been Eloy’s main role models from the very start, who will come up quite a bit in any description of the sound of “Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes”. Of everything they’ve done, this album is without a doubt the closest to the Pink Floyd sound of 71-75. That’s its greatest strength, but also its biggest flaw. Eloy never sounded as convincing, before or after, at pulling off their trademark mix of space rock ambience and symphonic rock drama, and in my view this album is their artistic peak. But the resemblance of some of the arrangements to those much more famous British giants clipped the wings of what little innovation they’d had up to then. Anyone who isn’t bothered by that will have no trouble enjoying the album.
“Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes” was the last album by the lineup that recorded their best space rock albums of the second half of the 70s. Keyboardist Detlev Schimdtchen and drummer Jürgen Rosenthal, who thanks to his style’s kinship with Neil Peart (Rush) was surely one of the best drummers on the German rock scene, both decided to hit the road after its release. The undisputed boss of the band, Frank Bornemann, as an excellent guitarist reached, so to speak, the peak of his development here when it comes to crafting subtle solos, although he leaned more and more on the influence of David Gilmour. There was no progress on the vocal front, though, and his heavily German-accented singing is still a problem for anyone used to the high standards of British prog rock singers. Setting Frank’s vocals aside, which personally don’t bother me, even though I’m convinced some sections would have turned out even better with a different vocal approach, their main flaw is the rather cheap poetry. With their mix of science fiction and humanist (not to say New Age) philosophy, Eloy always wanted to come across as intellectual in the style of certain British prog rock bands, but more often than not they came across as pretty cheap. As the first German band to try something along these lines with their lyrics, though, they’ve always got half a pardon from me. This time it’s not a concept album, although the lyrics share the same theme, touching above all on the border between human mortality and the eternity of the universe.
Of the six compositions on the album, there isn’t a weak one. They range from good to superb. “Astral Entrance/Master Of Sensation” are two separate sections, tightly linked together, forming this excellent esoteric EP, stuffed with countless multidimensional ambient sound curtains that build an unforgettable astral atmosphere. Right at the start of the album, Eloy invite the listener on a veritable spiritual journey through the distant nebulae of unknown galaxies. The mysterious opening part, “Astral Entrance”, with its interplay of esoteric waves of rich keyboard curtains, led by the mellotron, and weeping guitar passages, is astonishingly reminiscent of the Pink Floyd classic “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from “Wish You Were Here” (1975). Weaving these fragile, ambient passages, which will send anyone who listens to music with their heart too into a state of rapture, Bornemann clearly put himself in David Gilmour’s shoes.
After the first transition comes “Master Of Sensation”, where an interesting guitar riff shows up, complemented by plenty of energetic drum fills and dramatic soundscapes on the mellotron. Schimdtchen keeps feeding witty motifs into his many-colored keyboard palette, whether on the Hammond organ or the Moog synth, and they pair beautifully with the sensitive lines of Bornemann’s guitar and the dynamic rhythm section. Frank’s solos are, as usual, finger-licking good. The lyrics about the “creator and bringer of light” are admittedly rather clichéd (like most of them on the album), and Frank’s strong German accent is, as usual, not for every taste, but it still fits well with the individual melodic lines and doesn’t rob them of their magic. Despite the more than obvious sonic similarity of its intro to “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, I can’t call this excellent composition a rip-off, because that intro carries a completely different energy. Besides, years later the cult neo-prog band Pendragon came even closer to that Pink Floyd classic with the song “Walls Of Babylon”, which appears on the album “Window Of Life” (1993).
“Apocalypse” is another esoteric epic, divided into three sections, “Silent Cries Divide The Night”, “The Vision Burning” and “Force Majeure”, all of them stuffed with unpredictable twists. The intro features a delicate, melancholic vocal motif over an underlying wave of mellotron, followed by an excellent instrumental section with plenty of flowing Moog synth passages interwoven with weeping guitar lines. Within the composition, Eloy also slipped in an excellent motif worth mentioning, a coherent interplay of synthesizer and a guitar effect that sounds like an echo and comes back several times. Frank then does a great job of adding delicate solos that, combined with the mellotron, create unforgettable esoteric magic. In the second section, operatic multi-part vocals kick in wonderfully, courtesy of guest female vocalist Brigitte Witt, successfully summoning the spirit of the Pink Floyd classic “Great Gig In The Sky” from “Dark Side Of The Moon” (1973). Eloy would go on to bring dramatic operatic female vocal harmonies into most of their later releases too. Personally, I’ve always felt this kind of feminine vocal element was a great contrast to Frank’s often dry delivery. The long instrumental section that follows those female vocals, with its delicate blend of weeping guitar passages, electronic effects and layered keyboards multiplied by unpredictable time changes, creates an unforgettable cosmic atmosphere and is in my view the high point of the whole composition, which deserves a perfect ten and is among their best work.
“Pilot To Paradise” is another superb space rock treat, whose atmosphere effectively carries the listener’s mind off into weightlessness. Wonderfully tasteful arrangements on the Hammonds, complemented by a solid guitar riff and mighty, varied drum fills, will satisfy even the most demanding prog gourmets. The work of Schimdtchen’s keyboards, which together with energetic guitar passages and Matziol’s melodic bass carry the lion’s share of the esoteric atmosphere, sounds utterly majestic. After a clever motif featuring baroque organ arrangements and marching drums comes a dramatic section where electronic synth sounds and weeping guitar solos crash in. Even though Gilmour was more or less his spiritual father, you can’t overlook the exquisitely refined feel with which Frank contributes his share to all this esoteric magic.
“De Labore Solis” has a mysterious intro built on melodic guitar chords and atmospheric keyboard curtains, which a dramatic vocal eventually joins. As usual, the vocal is somewhat let down by the poetic lyrics. Despite repeating ambient arrangements on keyboards and acoustic guitar, the composition never gets boring for a second, because its hypnotic esoteric mood grows from minute to minute. In my opinion there are few lovers of quality space rock who wouldn’t be able to give themselves over completely to this seductive magic.
The closing “Mighty Echoes” opens with a tasteful baroque motif on keyboards and vocals, which makes a complete sonic about-face after the first drum transition. It then flows into a half-energetic, half-ambient building section where a funky bass guitar line sets the rhythm. Energetic instrumental passages on synthesizers and guitar keep sliding tastefully between ambient symphonic backdrops. Its best part arrives after the closing transition, when Frank weaves an outrageously delicious, atmospheric solo into the sound curtains and drum fills. If Frank had improved his accent and lyrical delivery even a little, this superb composition would have hit even harder and reached perfection.
At the end of the 70s, and with that the end of the golden age of (progressive) rock, Eloy created yet another space rock masterpiece with “Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes”. It falls short of its predecessor purely because of that more than obvious, and repeatedly mentioned, similarity of certain motifs to the far more famous Pink Floyd, which takes a bit away from its otherwise great stature, especially when it comes to innovation. But given that Eloy were never regarded as big musical innovators (at most on home turf, in Germany), that’s no reason for this gem of theirs to shine at anything less than full power. Eloy would go on to make a few more splendid albums, but they would never again reach the almost flawless excellence of their three space rock masterpieces from the second half of the 70s (besides “Ocean” and “Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes”, that also includes “Dawn”, 1976). With the changes on keyboards and drums and new sound technologies, by the next album and the start of the 80s their sound had already shifted again, moving them closer to a hard rock sound. And with that, their “space metal” phase began. “Silent Cries And Migty Echoes” stands as the peak of the band’s most refined space rock era, untouched by trends, and a majestic close to a musical period that many music lovers still remember with nostalgia as paradise.
Lineup
Frank Bornemann – vocals, guitar
Klaus-Peter Matziol – bass guitar, bass pedals, backing vocals
Detlev Schmidtchen – keyboards, backing vocals
Jürgen Rosenthal – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Brigitte Witt – vocals (2b)
Production
Frank Bornemann
Track list
1. Astral Entrance (3:03)
2. Master Of Sensation (6:00)
3. The Apocalypse (14:54)
a) Silent Cries Divide The Night
b) The Vision Burning
c) Force Majeure
4. Pilot To Paradise (7:01)
5. De Labore Solis (5:12)
6. Mighty Echoes (7:16)
Bonus tracks on the reissue:
7. Child Migration (4:05)
8. Let the Sun Rise in my Brain (3:29)
Album length: 51:00
