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The Machine In The Garden
The Machine in the Garden is a gothic/darkwave duo featuring Roger Fracé and Summer Bowman. Since their formation, Roger and Summer have developed and advanced their unique style through years of collaborating and intertwining their musical tastes.
The band's first release was the 1994 Veils and Shadows EP. Initially a solo endeavor by Roger Fracé, the debut EP blended the dark elements of goth with new wave and industrial tinges. However, folded within the songs were melodies of a more classical nature.
The band's sound further evolved with the addition of musician Summer Bowman. Her enchanting voice lent an ethereal quality to the music on the duo's first full-length recording, Underworld, in 1997. The dark electronics of the debut EP, which garnered acclaim from press and radio, were still there, but multi-layered with an atmospheric mood and style, giving the CD an original sound transcending pre-existing genres.
Following a string of successful singles on various compilations, the band honed its sound to produce the ethereal One Winter's Night... Released in 1999, One Winter's Night... draws listeners into its hypnotic spell, merging intricate musical structures with emotional lyrics. The listener is fixed in a soundscape of beauty, where synths, guitar, piano and vocals from both Bowman and Fracé meld to form a darkwave album that excites as well as haunts the senses.
The band continued working in the studio after the success of One Winter's Night... to create its next release, a full-length enhanced multimedia CD, Out of the Mists. This CD takes listeners on a journey through the many facets of the band and explores classical, electronic, goth and ethereal genres. In its creative exploration, the band made a video for the haunting and melodic song, "The Unaware." Out of the Mists is both visually and musically rich, a stunning tour de force encompassing the band's emotional edge.
Creating a powerful yet delicate mix of darkwave influences and ethereal melodies, Fracé and Bowman invoked soaring guitars, tribal rhythms and electronic sweeps to create 2002's Asphodel. Like the flower of the album's namesake, Asphodel unfolds layers of the band's vision, relating songs of love and desire, sorrow and despair, always searching for the quiet beauty underneath the darkness that strengthens the roots of the soul.
Easily the band's finest album to date, Shadow Puppets, released in April 2005, is a seamless amalgam of electronics, ethereal melodies and sensuous rhythms. It is dynamic, anthemic, and yet at times introspective, propelled by Bowman's dazzling vocals.
2007 marks the 15th anniversary of Fracé's formation of the band as well as the 10th anniversary of Bowman's joining and the release of Underworld. For this special occassion, the band released XV, a special limited-edition CD, in December 2007. XV includes 15 tracks spanning the band's 15-year history, including demos, remixes, previously unreleased outtakes and two brand-new songs.
The name "the Machine in the Garden" refers to the progress of technology and its relationship with nature. Each release explores this relationship between the mechanical, natural and spiritual worlds and further elucidates the philosophy behind the band.
Ever evolving and pushing the limits of the ethereal/darkwave genre, the Machine in the Garden strives to explore all aspects of electronic music while continuing to compose songs that endure.
