Hermetic Science was founded in January 1996 as rock's first vibes/marimba power trio. In the band's early days, California's North Coast supported four live music scenes: jazz, country, punk rock, and (in southern Humboldt County) reggae. Of the four, jazz had the closest congruence with the prog rock/jazz-rock fusion/worldbeat synthesis of the band's original music, so they built up a significant jazz repertoire (favoring 50s Cool and 60s Bossa Nova), secured live gigs at local and regional jazz clubs and festivals, and presented sets that alternated “real” jazz with their original music. During their first recording sessions in March 1996 for their debut album, Ed Macan's Hermetic Science (released November 1997), they recorded four jazz standards that were part of their live setlist, with the goal of using the recordings to secure future gigs. However, as the band continued work on the album between spring 1996 and summer 1997, these one-take, unedited jazz recordings were forgotten.
In the early stages of remixing and remastering Ed Macan's Hermetic Science from the original ADATs for its 30th anniversary release on May 4, 2026, Ed Macan, the band's leader and principal composer, rediscovered the four forgotten March 1996 jazz recordings, and decided to release them as The Lost Jazz Tapes EP. While Out There: Live 1996-2006 (2019) includes a few of the band's early jazz performances, these recordings are of a significantly higher sonic standard than those, and include two tracks that, to Macan's knowledge, were never recorded live at all. So, put on the album, sit back, and let Hermetic Science's Lost Jazz Tapes EP take you back in time to the smoky North Coast jazz clubs of the mid-1990s!
Lineup
Tracklist
To Stream: https://hermeticscience.hearnow.com/
CDs: https://www.hermeticscience.com/CDs.html
[Limited number of promo CDs available; send inquiries to hermeticscience@earthlink.net]
On Bandcamp: https://hermeticscience.bandcamp.com/
For All Things Hermetic Science: www.hermeticscience.com
THE HERMETIC SCIENCE 30th ANNIVERSARY PROJECT
The 30th Anniversary Project is dedicated to the re-release of Hermetic Science's first three albums, Ed Macan's Hermetic Science (1997), Prophesies (1999), and En Route (2001), all originally released on the long-defunct Magnetic Oblivion label and out of print for decades, on the Hermeticum Records label. It also includes The Lost Jazz Tapes EP, previously unreleased jazz recordings made during the sessions for their first album. All of these releases are being remixed and remastered from the original ADATs whenever possible.
The 30th Anniversary edition of Ed Macan's Hermetic Science was released May 4, 2026, and The Lost Jazz Tapes EP will be released July 8, 2026. 30th Anniversary editions of Hermetic Science's second and third albums, Prophesies (1999) and En Route (2001), are set to be re-released in summer/fall 2026. More news to follow!!!
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
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!!!