Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Silhouette (prog rock, neo prog rock, symphonic rock / The Netherlands)



Silhouette exists since 2005, started by a couple of friends with passion for progressive rock music.  The music they play is influenced by band such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Marillion, but also by more recent music. 
They wanted to write songs that tell a story and have a soul. At that time, the band consisted of Brian de Graeve (vocals and guitars), Jos Uffing (vocals and drums), Gerrit Jan Bloemink (bass guitar), and Erik Laan vocals and Keyboards).

Soon it was clear there was chemistry in the band and although Silhouette started with only modest ambitions, they realized that their ideas deserved to be on an album. With a minimal budget, without a real studio to record and without a label, Silhouette released their debut album A Maze in 2007. Pleasantly surprised by the success of this debut album, Silhouette soon started to write and record the next album: Moods, based on an autobiographical story of Brian.
In 2012 Silhouette released their third album Across the Rubicon, which meant another step in the crescendo of positive responses which the band received from all over the world.

In 2013 Jos had left the band for personal reasons. Though the band would miss his great voice, song writing talents and humor, his place was quickly filled by Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen, who had proved his talents with his progmetal band Incidense. Rob will combine both bands for the time being. In the same year Silhouette asked guitar prodigy Daniel van der Weijde to join the band after he was spotted at the Marillion weekend in Port Zelande in March 2013, playing a version of "Splintering Heart" as a guest musician.

In 2013 and 2014 Silhouette undertook its most ambitious project so far, another concept album titled "Beyond the Seventh Wave". 
Beyond the Seventh Wave is a concept album of more than 60 minutes with as theme the hunger for freedom so common to man kind. It is based and inspired by books and movies of people being innocently convicted such as "Escape from Alcatraz", "Fugitive" and "The Next Three Days".  But most of all, it is inspired by the story of Papillion, a Frenchman convicted for life forced labor for a crime he did not commit. He escaped several times but was destined to live his days on "Devil Island". Would he finally escape?


During the process of recording the album GJ decided to leave Silhouette because he felt he was not able to combine the band with his work and private life anymore in a way he felt was necessary for the band at this stage. He was replaced by Jurjen Bergsma who immediately stepped in to fill the bass gaps on the remaining songs for "Beyond the Seventh Wave".

On the album several musicians played a guest role, including keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel (Kayak, Camel), cellist Ruben van Kruistum (Adeia), violinist Laura ten Voorde (Adeia), clarinetist Tamara van Koetsveld (Dutch Royal Airforce Orchestra) and flutist Mary O, who was also present as guest vocalist and flutist on Across the Rubicon. 


Current members:

Brian de Graeve - vocals , guitar
Erik Laan - vocals keyboards, bass pedals
Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen - drums, percussion
Daniel van der Weijde - guitar
Jurjen Bergsma - bass


Former members:

Gerrit-Jan (GJ) Bloemink - bass (until 2014)
Jos Uffing - drums, vocals and acoustic guitars (until 2013)




Discography:

Albums:

- A-maze (2007)
- Moods (2009)
- Across the Rubicon (2012)
- Beyond the Seventh Wave (2014)


Lost Paradise | Betrayed Again | Devil's Island - LIVE : https://youtu.be/rAJz4bjpGP8


In Solitary: https://youtu.be/0u-RLkfBK_g :




Web of Lies: https://youtu.be/g_w_hjWnZp4 :






Silhouette's album "Beyond the Seventh Wave" received the iO Pages Prog Award 2014 for the best prog CD that was released in Belgium and the Netherlands in that year: 

https://youtu.be/bmXiPmAUYs8 :





Sources: wikipedia, http://www.silhouetteband.nl/


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