Scott's Spotlight #31-- Silhouette
Originally posted to Facebook on May 1, 2025
Link to post:
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Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #31. For more information about this series, please click here:
This week, it’s time to travel to the Netherlands! This week I’ll be featuring Silhouette, a neo-prog band from Utrecht, Netherlands. The roots of the band go back to 2001. Guitarist/vocalist Brian de Graeve had placed an ad for a drummer for the band he was in at the time. However, by the time drummer/guitarist/vocalist Jos Uffing replied, that band had gone defunct. It turned out that the two musicians hit it off and shared similar influences so they stayed in touch. In the ensuing years they each worked on songs and shared them with each other. By 2004, they decided to pursue forming a band Brian had a number of contacts in the local music scene and recruited Bass guitar player GJ Bloemink; keyboardist Toine van Riesewijk and guitar player Henny van Veenendaal. Tonie and Henny didn’t stay long, and the two of them were replaced by keyboardist/vocalist Erik Laan . Henny, however, became the band’s album cover artist on the first two albums.
By 2006 (or 2007 depending on the source) it was time for the quartet to release their first album, called “A-Maze”. The album was received fairly well and showed their potential to the prog world. I have enjoyed the following tracks: “Where Are You Now” “The World is Gonna Get You”, “Reunion” and “Seize the Night” which is the longest track on the album at around 9:20. The album was self-released and led to them playing gigs around the Netherlands.
The follow-up album came out in 2009, called “Moods”. This album (and all subsequent ones) was released on Swedish prog-rock label Progress Records rather than being a self-release. By all accounts, the band had improved from their debut album, and really started to get on the prog radar. “Moods” was apparently semi-autobiographical from Brian de Graeve. Prog fans began calling them a “Band on the Rise”. I am currently, as I type this, listening to the nearly 11-minute “Unreal Meeting” and I can confirm that the composing, arranging, and production are definitely a step-up compared to the first album, taking them from good to great. I have also enjoyed “Searching for Her”, “Don’t Mess with Me”, “Moods”, and “Far Away”.
The third album for Silhouette is called “Across the Rubicon”, released in 2012. This would be the first album not to feature Henny’s cover art. This time the famous Ed Unitsky who has done album covers for many modern prog bands (including Unitopia, which I just featured 2 weeks ago in spotlight #29 - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12BW7uqXPFz/ ) provided the cover art. Once again, Silhouette delivered a great album and improved even more. This one garnered some 5 star reviews on ProgArchives. It truly is a fine album of modern prog! Every track is absolutely brilliant. It includes three 11 minute + epics in “Breathe”, “Anybody” and “Don’t Stop This Movie”, which is only 5 seconds short of 12 minutes.
Album #4 for Silhouette is “Beyond the Seventh Wave” , released in 2014 is the first Silhouette album to have personnel changes. It seems that the original drummer and band co-founder Jos Uffing exited the band sometime in 2013, and I have no information as to why. He was replaced by Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen. Additionally, they expanded to a 5 piece by adding second guitarist Daniel van der Weijde (apparently allowing Brian de Graeve to focus on vocals and 12-String guitar, as evidenced by the album’s credits). Finally, a change of bassist seems to have happened during the recording of the album as GJ Bloemink is credited as the primary bassist, but Jurjen Bergsma is also listed. According to a press release provided to me by Brian de Graeve announcing the release of “Beyond the Seventh Wave”, Jurjen is the new bassist and “played on several tracks” on the album. No explanation is given for the departure of the 2 original members. Despite the changes, Silhouette delivered a fantastic slab of prog! The response seems to rate it on par with “Across the Rubicon” and some say it’s even better. There are some guest musicians on the album, including Ton Scherpenzeel, on Moog synth. I am presently listening to the two-track suite “Web of Lies” and the arrangement is amazing! Both instrumentally and vocally. This is seriously good music that any prog fan will enjoy. At 7:35 the sound is absolutely heavenly! The two tracks of the suite total 12:47. Additional ambitious tracks on this one are the nearly 9 minute “Devil’s Island” and the 10:36 “Lost Paradise”. A professionally filmed and recorded performance from 2016 on the “Beyond the Seventh Wave” tour was released as a CD/DVD in 2017 as “Staging the Seventh Wave.”
The 5 piece that completed “Beyond the Seventh Wave” was also present for album #5, the brilliantly titled “The World is Flat and Other Alternative Facts” was also released in 2017. “Alternative Facts” is a term used by the first Trump administration to describe how the noticeably low turnout for his inauguration was supposedly the largest crowd ever to witness a presidential inauguration. Once again, Silhouette took it to a new level. The suite “Symphony for a Perfect Moment” , although split into 5 tracks, totals nearly 18 minutes! (I don’t know why the epics are broken into smaller bits so frequently on modern prog albums, I would much rather have them as one cohesive track.) Other longer tracks include “The Flow” (8:46) and “Six Feet Underground” (9:35).
After the release of this fantastic album, the band’s trail seemed to go cold. No new albums have been released since, but the Facebook page was still active. On that page I found out that the members of Silhouette have been involved in other projects, particularly Erik Laan with TumbleTown and Chain Reaktor and Brian de Graeve with Realisea. Chain Reaktor features Erik’s sons Bart and Arjan. They have released one album in 2021. TumbleTown is a collaboration between 2 producers/guitarists from the Netherlands–Han Uil and Aldo Adema. However, Erik Laan has appeared on all three of their albums, the first one as a guest, and a member on the other two, and Arjan plays drums on the 2 most recent releases. Realisea is a collaboration between Brian de Graeve and his wife Marjolein on vocals, and includes the original Silhouette drummer Jos Uffing in the line-up. Erik Laan and his sons have been guest players. Other guest collaborators have included Michel St-Père and Jean Pageau of Mystery (Spotlight #16 https://www.facebook.com/share/15uBytZtpV/ ). They have released 2 albums, thus far. Descriptions of their sound give it a prog-folk spin. Silhouette’s guitarist Daniel van der Weijde, bassist Jurjen Bergsma and drummer Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen have a band known as Meadows who have also released 2 studio albums. According to their information, they are a bit more prog metal oriented. So all of the Silhouette men have stayed busy over the past 8 years. All of these bands are available to stream on Apple Music (I already had Chain Reaktor without realizing they were connected to Silhouette, and I added all of the others) as well as for purchase on Bandcamp.
So, does that close the book on Silhouette as a band? Not according to Brian de Graeve when I reached out to the band via their Facebook page. After discussing some of the “splinter” bands of Silhouette, he had this to say:
“...BUT.....as Silhouette we started last year to build on a new album. We are not in a rush, but if we were going to do studio album #6 it's gonna be the best you ever heard from us, so for us the quality prevails…”
So there we have it. No timeline, but as of now a new Silhouette album is in the works! I hope I have peaked your curiosity about this fine band and that you will check out the links for listening below.
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Prog On!
LINKS FOR LISTENING:
From “A-Maze”:
“The World is Gonna Get You”
“Seize the Night”
From “Moods”:
“Unreal Meeting”
“Moods”
From “Across the Rubicon”
“Breathe”
“When the Snow’s Falling Down” (Video by Ed Unitsky)
From “Beyond the Seventh Wave”
“Web of Lies–Part 1: The Vow”
“Web of Lies–Part 2: The Plot”
From “The World is Flat and Other Alternative Facts”
“The Flow”
“Six Feet Underground”
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