By Ian McIvor
Delerium, Front Line Assembly members Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber's prolific side project returns with their new album Signs. Formed in 1986, Delerium has explored various aspects of electronic music, evolving and traversing genres in pursuit of the exquisite. With Signs, Leeb and Fulber continue their journey through hypnotic rhythms and enveloping ambience, enlisting the vocal talents of Mimi Page, Phildel, KANGA, and Inna Walters. Each singer brings their unique voice to the album, adding layers of aching beauty and romanticism. Focused initially on voiceless industrial soundscapes with militant drumming, Delerium gained widespread recognition after shifting towards ethnic electronica and New Age influences, similar to Enigma. Their chart-topping single "Silence," featuring Sarah McLachlan, garnered significant attention after being remixed by various trance acts. Since then, Delerium has mainly operated as an electro-pop band, collaborating with numerous renowned vocalists.
What Worked
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have remained quite productive during the Covid-19 pandemic and have turned their focus back to Delerium. With Signs, the music and vocals create a heavy atmosphere distinct from Front Line Assembly, but veteran listeners will instantly recognize Leeb and Fulber’s fingerprints all over the album. Signs have a good balance of tracks with vocals and instrumentals, providing a consistent and coherent album for the listener. With Delerium, Leeb, and Fulber can produce some of their strongest and most interesting work, and Signs is no exception.
What Didn’t Work
There is nothing that works against Signs, and the album showcases Leeb and Fulber at the top of their game, tempered by the high amount of musical output over the past couple of years. The song “Glimmer” is a remix of a song from the Chimera sessions in 2003 with Emily Haines of Metric providing vocals and was previously featured on the Rarities & B-Sides compilation. While it would have been easy to include the remix as a bonus track at the end of the album, they were able to incorporate it into the album and leave Signs with an appropriate opener and closer in “Falling Back to You” and “Absolution”, both sung by Mimi Page.
Delerium - Signs