Beyond the Invisible Review (Ye Min Than)

[Beyond the Invisible Cover]

by Ye Min Than October 25 1996

Beyond the Invisible (Radio Edit)

The song starts with intro of low-volumed pan-flute (or Shakuhachi if you like). And there is also a strange synth sound (like the siren of a train or a kind of strange human "synth" voice) playing single notes as the intro builds up. The voice of Sandra comes in around 0:19 and sings (or rather speaks) the first verse. Her voice is as recognizable and mystifying as in The Second Chapter, The Voice of Enigma or I Love You...I'll Kill You. After she sings the lines ".....beyond the invisible..", the main melody of the song comes in. The melody is built of a strange female voice that is repeated and processed with "multi-delay" EFXs (or simply "Delay" effects)!!! Here again, Michael uses human vocal as an instrument itself to build a melody. Technically speaking, Beyond the Invisible is like Return to Innocence. But Beyond the Invisble is much much better than Return to Innocence!!!! It sounds more mysterious and more beautiful. No doubt, this will be one of the favourite songs of the Enigma fans.

The chorus is sung by Michael Cretu himself. He vocal is like usual and he sings the chorus line "Close your eyes........What's beyond reality." After the first chorus, the Gregorian Chants kicks in. It is at the middle of the song and moreover, there are sounds of female moanings (those of Sandra) through out the song. This parts give you the feel of MCMXC a.D. but mind you, in term of style and music, Beyond the Invisible is not similar to the songs like Sadeness, or Mea Culpa. If you want, the song Beyond the Invisible is like a subtle mixture of Return to Innocence and Sadeness!!!!!! But it is distinctive and of course, it's a great song.

After the Gregorian chants, the drums kick in louder but missing is the groove beats like in Sadeness. The rest of the song is repeating of Michael's singing until fade out. The main melody of the song is played constantly at the background while Micheal sings the chorus. The melody of this song is very distinctive and sounds very mystifying. Beyond the Invisible is truely a great song........

Almost Full Moon

This is a new track. It is not a remix of Beyond the Invisible. There is no lyrics inside, just an instrumental song with a kind of tribal chants (strange chant though) that is repeated again and again. The chant sounds like a child singing. The same chant is repeated again but in a adult male vocal. It seems that Michael uses a voice transformer (maybe a BOSS VT-1) to change the same chant from a child voice to an adult one. Very neat!!! The chants is looped constantly along the whole song.

The song is very atmospheric and it is a slow song. There are slow drums with all kinds of synth sounds at the back. The melody comes in the middle of the track. This song is just above average. It is just a backup song for the Maxi CD.

Beyond the Invisible (Album Version)

The same as Radio Edit but with longer intro and fade out. The sounds of train siren or human synth sound is omitted.

Light of Your Smile

This is a great track!!! At first listening, it sounds like a Deep Forest song. This is because the chant Michael uses for this track is somewhat similar to those of Deep Forest. Musically and technically speaking, it has nothing to do with Deep Forest style. The essence of this track is its distinctive composition of rhythm.

This song starts slowly and then builds up its rhythm. Its rhythm is very good and distinctive like typical of Michael's style. The rhythm is composed of different sounds from Drum kits and Michael mixes these with sounds of birds (like pigeons). This is VERY COOL!!!!! VERY NEAT!!! The sounds of synth make the track more colorful and uplifting (giving the vision of a shooting star!!!).

Overall, the song is very atmospheric and upbeating. This track is really excellent indeed. Maybe this is the best track of the Maxi CD.

Beyond the Invisible (Short Edit)

This is a short version of Track 1. Nothing new here.........


  • Look at the other Beyond the Invisible review