Silent Cries & Mighty Echoes [Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered]

Eloy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: EMI
• ASIN: B00070FZKS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,422 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Astral Entrance/Master of Sensation

2. The Apocalypse: Silent Cries Divide the Nights/The Vision-Burning/ ...

3. Pilot to Paradise

4. De Labore Solis

5. Mighty Echoes

Editorial Reviews

Remastered reissue of Eloy's 8th album originally releasedin 1978. EMI. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to believe great prog could be released in 1979, March 18, 2007

By 

BENJAMIN MILER (Veneta, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Silent Cries & Mighty Echoes (Audio CD)

And that's true, given how bad in shape the prog rock scene was by 1979. We all know about punk and disco taking a toll on the genre, the punk rock scene accusing prog rock of being pretentious, while the disco scene basically asked everyone to party and have a good time (not to mention it generated a lot of money for the record companies), meaning there was no time for intellectual lyrics and extended compositions (and I don't mean some extended version of "Love to Love You, Baby", since it still conforms to disco rules) and tricky time signatures. Pretty much just about every prog rock band in 1979 had seen their best days behind them and many of them sounding really hopeless finding themselves during changing fads (since most weren't in to disco or punk, they simply became much more mainstream and pop-oriented, if they survived this long, that is).

One band that completely avoided that and totally ignored those changing fads was Eloy. In 1977 they recorded one of their finest albums ever, Ocean, and against all odds, became a huge seller in Germany outselling much better known acts as Genesis and Queen in Eloy's home country. And how do they follow up with that masterpiece? With Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes, which was recorded at the end of 1978 (November and December), and released in '79. I call it a miracle this album even came out, because the band simply ignored whatever fads were in their place (New Wave was becoming big in '79) and still recorded prog like it was still 1975 (and in fact, aside from the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano, most of the other keyboards used on this album were made before '75, so no polyphonic synths here like the Prophet V or Yamaha CS-80). And you know what? This album was another German smash hit!

And speaking of 1975, the opening cut, "Astral Entrance" sounds so much like a missing piece from Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from Wish You Were Here (from 1975) that you can easily get mistakened for a lost Wish You Were Here session. Here Detlev Schmidtchen used those same droning string synths that Rick Wright did on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", with Frank Bornemann giving those David Gilmour-like lead guitars. And in fact this album has a stronger emphasis to Bornemann's lead guitar playing than did Ocean. "Master of Sensation" finds the whole band kicking in, with prepared piano that's not unlike something off Meddle. Lots of nice Moog solos too. "The Apocalypse" is a wonderful three part epic, with lots of great string synths, Hammond organ, and Moog, and some female choruses. "De Labore Solis" is a very spacy ballad that's not unlike some of the spacier moments of Ocean, while "Mighty Echoes" has some rather dominate Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano, and an ELP reference in the lyrics ("Just take a pebble and cast it to the silent sea", or something like that.

This album also marked the end of Detlev Schmidtchen and Jurgen Rosenthal's stay in the band. According to Frank Bornemann their departure was because of their egos. Both Schmidtchen and Rosenthal did continue on as Ego on the Rocks and around 1981 released the album Acid in Wounderland, which unsurprisingly, has an Eloy-like sound. Eloy continued on until 1984 with some new guys (Hannes Arkona, Hannes Folberth, Jim McGillivray, and after 1981, Fritz Randow returning, replacing McGillivray), and of course the reunion in 1988 with Michael Gerlach.

Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes only proves how to do prog rock in the ever difficult times of 1979, and it's an album I very much highly recommend.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eloy - 'Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes' (EMI), December 17, 2004

By 

Mike Reed (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Cries & Mighty Echoes (Audio CD)

Originally released in 1978,this was the band's ninth lp as this reissue was my very first exposure to the long-running German band.Eloy has one constant member that more or less IS Eloy,and that is guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann.Eloy's music is top rate 'progressive art-rock',or as some critics put it,somewhere between Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.Sounds like a good thing to me.Tracks that I thought showed the most promise were the fifteen-minute "The Apocalypse:Silent Cries..." and the somewhat laid back "De Labore Solis".Sort of noticed the soothing synth work by Detlev Schmidtchen,very nice!As far as I know,I believe the band may still exist in some form to this day.Should appeal to fans of Nektar,Grobschnitt,Focus,Gentle Giant and maybe even Curved Air.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last of the trilogy of excellent albums made from 1976-1979, April 9, 2006

By 

Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Silent Cries & Mighty Echoes (Audio CD)

This 1979 album opens with an incredibly spacey synth introduction (Astral Entrance) that would not have been out of place on the album Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd, 1975). In fact, the combination of Gilmour-esque guitar playing, the wall of synthesizers, and the chord sequence sounds a little...well, TOO familiar. It's not a big deal for me though - I love both Pink Floyd and Eloy, and musicians are generally fond of quoting one another as a form of tribute.

However, once Master of Sensation kicks in with the punchy, trebly, bass of Klaus-Peter Matziol, the virtuosic drumming of Jurgen Rosenthal, and the heavy Germanic accent of vocalist/guitarist Frank Bornemann, it becomes clear that this is in fact an Eloy album. I know this has been stated a billion times before, but a lot of people don't like Frank's vocals, citing his thick accent as a major problem - I for one like his vocals quite a lot. In addition to Frank, there are some "soulful" female backup vocals by Brigitte Witt on a few tunes - in fact they don't sound unlike the vocal parts on Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd, 1973). The lineup on this album is simply spectacular, and along with great keyboardist Detlev Schmidtchen and his spacey keyboard work (Arp synth, mini-moog, mellotron, and Hammond organ), generated the best music Eloy made in the 1970s (including the albums Dawn (1976) and Ocean (1977). Unfortunately, drummer Jurgen Rosenthal and keyboardist Detlev Schmidtchen left Eloy after this album, which is a pity - they really contributed a lot to the band.

The 6 tracks on the album range in length from the 3'03 Astral Entrance to the 14'55" mini epic The Apocalypse. The lyrics by drummer Jurgen Rosenthal are pretty cosmic and I have absolutely no clue what he was writing about, but then that's part of the fun of listening to 1970s prog.

The remastered album by EMI is excellent although copy-control technology was used and some folks have complained about playback problems. I for one have played this copy controlled product on everything including a cheap Sony discman; my laptop; and an excellent Harmon-Kardon CD player with no playback problems whatsoever. The liner notes are detailed, although they are in German, and there are loads of band photos scattered throughout. Like all of the Eloy albums, the sound quality is excellent with good separation, crisp highs, and deep bass. The two bonus tracks include the not-so-great Child Migration and the slightly better Let the Sun Rise in my Brain.

All in all, this is an excellent album of well played spacey prog and is highly recommended along with Dawn (1976), Ocean (1977), and Planets (1981).