Hermetic Science, formed in early 1996, is one of the more interesting bands to emerge from the 1990s progressive music revival. The band was founded by virtuoso mallet percussionist and keyboard player Ed Macan, a well-known progressive music scholar and author ("Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture," 1996, and "Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer," 2006). The music of Hermetic Science brings together elements of seventies progressive rock, ECM-inspired spatial jazz, twentieth century classical music, and Eastern musical styles. Always a trio, the band's music initially revolved around Macan's extraordinary abilities as a vibraphonist; eventually, his formidable keyboard work came to play an equally prominent role in the band's epic soundscapes.The band's first three albums were released between 1997 and 2001. The first, "Hermetic Science" (1997) is the most vibes-dominated and the jazziest. The second, "Prophesies" (1999), a concept album loosely based around the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah, offers an edgier rock/classical chamber music fusion, and incorporates keyboards (piano, Hammond organ, ARP string ensemble) into the arrangements much more than the first album. The third album, "En Route" (2001), another concept album based around a series of novels by J. K. Huysmans, is Hermetic Science's heaviest and most rock-based album, with the keyboards (including a heavy dose of Moog synthesizer) now taking centerstage, and the vibes and marimba parts playing more of a supporting role.The band was inactive from 2002 through 2005. In early 2006 Macan announced both the reformation of the band and the release of a two-CD compilation, "Crash Course: A Hermetic Science Primer," which contains remixed and remastered versions of all 19 original tracks from the three Hermetic Science studio albums, plus their pile-driving cover of "Mars, the Bringer of War." The revived Hermetic Science rehearsed and recorded new material between early 2006 and mid 2007: the resulting album, "These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins," was released in June 2008 by Musea Records, and features a cover design by artist Paul Whitehead, best known for his work with Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator. Roughly half of the new album plies the lush, keyboard-dominated symphonic prog idiom established on "En Route," although now with discreet touches of post-rock influences; the other half hearkens back to early Hermetic Science by featuring vibes and marimba in a lead role, but in the context of fuller, more sophisticated arrangements than in the band's early days.
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