News Update: April 2026
Ed Macan's Hermetic Science 30th Anniversary Reissue Now Available!

Hermetic Science's first three albums, Ed Macan's Hermetic Science (1997), Prophesies (1999), and En Route (2001) originally were released on the Magnetic Oblivion label. After it folded in 2002, group leader and principal composer Edward Macan regained publication rights, and in 2006 the compilation Crash Course: A Hermetic Science Primer made the original tracks from these albums available in a single set. While this compilation served its purpose for many years, by the early 2020s Macan came to realize the disappearance of the Magnetic Oblivion albums obscured the band's chronological and stylistic development, and made the decision to mark the band's 30th anniversary in 2026 by re-releasing their first three albums on the Hermeticum Records label, re-mixing and remastering from the original ADATs whenever possible.

Ed Macan's Hermetic Science is the first fruits of this effort. Recorded in 1996 and released in 1997, it is one of the most unique and original instrumental rock albums of its era: its synthesis of classic prog, jazz-rock fusion, psych, and worldbeat roiled the mid-90s prog scene, and introduced rock's first vibraphone/marimba power trio, featuring Macan's massive chords and psychedelically reverberating textures. While Hermetic Science later shifted to a more conventional keyboard trio format in which vibes played a textural role, each of the band's subsequent studio albums has explored different facets of the debut's prog-jazz-psych-classical-eastern fusion.

In the early 2000s Ed Macan's Hermetic Science went out of print, and its original tracks made their way to the Crash Course compilation. Now, marking the band's 30th anniversary, Ed Macan's Hermetic Science has been completely remixed and remastered from the original ADATs, resulting in a sonic power, fulness, and spatial detail the band only could have dreamed of in the far-off days of 1996. It is being re-released with its original album art and includes 3 tracks that have never been available for download or streaming. Not to be missed!!!

Tracklist

  1. Esau's Burden (5:08) (Macan)
  2. Fire Over Thule (9:30) (Macan)
  3. The Sungazer (11:10) (Macan)
  4. Medley (7:38): Cheetah (Way)*/Infinite Space (Emerson/Palmer)*
  5. Intrigue in the House of Panorama (4:11) (Macan)
  6. Fanfare for the House of Panorama (4:03) (Macan)
  7. Trisagion (8:15) (Macan)
  8. Jacob's Ladder (6:55) (Lee/Lifeson/Peart)*
* Previously unavailable for download or streaming

To Stream: hermeticscience.hearnow.com To Buy the CD: hermeticscience.com/CDs.html

Hermetic Science's Lost Jazz Tapes EP, a collection of previously-unreleased jazz recordings recorded in 1996, to be released late spring/early summer 2026: more news to follow!!!

30th Anniversary editions of Hermetic Science's second and third albums, Prophesies (1999) and En Route (2001), to be re-released in summer/fall 2026: more news to follow!!!

 

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