Review: Etrange - Enigme - The Progressive Subway

Style: Progressive Metal (Instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Liquid Tension Experiment, Carpenter Brut, Demetori
Review by: Christopher
Country: France
Release date: 1 September, 2022

Far beyond the confines of this galaxy, deep in the depths of the cosmos unmappable, you are adrift. The firmament is laid out around you in all its celestial glory: an iridescent nebula cloud cradles nascent stars; lonely comets arc on paths dictated by opaque gravitational forces; and out in all that uninhabitable nothingness something is approaching. A solitary spaceship floats into view. Filled with the last memories of a dying Earth, it journeys past you and out into the great beyond, infused with some unknowable yet palpable sentience, some undivinable sense of purpose. You catch a glimpse of a single word printed on the side of its spherical hull: Etrange.

But enough about Etrange the spaceship, let’s talk about Etrange the band. This French instrumental prog duo consists of the pseudonymous Velhon (keys and programming) and Deadale (guitars and bass), and Enigme is their sophomore album which continues the sci-fi saga of their eponymous cosmic probe. It’s a symphonically composed story told through spacey atmospheres with a slew of frenetic guitar and synth work and drawing influences from a galaxy of different subgenres. This time, Etrange—the ship, not the band—has detected a mysterious signal within the depths of space and sets out to find its origin; Enigme waits at the edge of the universe, but what is Enigme: a fellow space probe, or the product of a fracture in spacetime?

Enigme, like its predecessor, has an effortless flow to its composition, eschewing the strictures of verses and choruses in favour of evolving motifs. “Entity” opens with an anarchic riff, the equivalent of navigating an asteroid belt, before a triumphant roar: a cinematic cue for our titular spaceship to burst through the debris unscathed. When listening it’s hard not to think of Liquid Tension Experiment—that same combination of manic synth and melodious shred working in concert—but “Nexus” opens with black metal blast beats that are joined by magnificent symphonic accompaniment; riffs more readily associated with tech-death are effortlessly woven into “Gemini”; and synthwave drenches sections of “Irradiance”, “Möbius” and “Eclipse”. All these subgenres are absorbed and condensed to a singularity by the immense gravitational heft of Etrange’s genre experimentation.

The story I outlined earlier is more or less all the information we’re given. Instrumental artists love to impose a narrative on their music, but the exciting thing about Etrange is that they explicitly state that the cover art, song titles, and some brief transmissions from Etrange itself (which can be found on their Bandcamp page) are all mere reference points, the blurry outlines of a premise that gives the listener autonomical largesse to imagine their own narrative. The aim is to zone out to a frankly amazing soundtrack for fifty minutes, and escape into your own reverie about Etrange’s possible exploits amidst the stars. It’s a primer, one which a talented sci-fi writer could use to pen a truly brilliant tale. As a result, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, Enigme feels far more narrative-driven than any other instrumental prog album I’ve heard. The dynamism of the music, its inherent sense of cinema, is surely a big part of that; your imagination can’t help but be invigorated by such a sonic feast. Great storytelling is always a case of show not tell, and Etrange ably show you the path.

In the same way that Etrange provide an engine for other creators’ energies, the broadness of their concept allows them to let their own musical imaginations run riot. “Irradiance” opens in what I can only call symphonic synthwave fashion, joined by a funky bass riff and noodly soloing, suggestive of Etrange and Enigme convening through some sort of technicolour spacescape, that recalls Carpenter Brut. Meanwhile, a solo piano composition introduces “Möbius”, violin and flute take on significant roles in “Irradiance”, and rhapsodic brass slices through “Gemini” before a flute-led orchestral waltz takes us into hitherto unimagined dimensions of compositional awesomeness: fucking space samba.

The elements that constitute all things are formed by the unfathomable pressures that roil within the hearts of stars. In a sort of reverse engineering of that principle, Etrange unquenchably consume all genres and with them forge a seamless amalgamation of styles, a sonic celestial event. Enigme is the second triumph in a discography that looks set to be continuously composed of such innovation and technical mastery, somehow managing to improve on its faultless predecessor. You may never witness the collapse of a supernova or attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, but you can certainly hear something of equal sublimity if you join Etrange on its journey through the infinite.

Recommended tracks: Entity, Irradiance, Gemini
You may also like: Josh Middleton Project, Scaphoid, Coevality, Decimals, Koyaanisqatsy
Final verdict: 8.5/10