EGOIST

Krakow is the place to search if you like melodic Neo Prog and Polish band Loonypark is another act from the city trying to be sidelined somewhere in the proggy map of the country.The band was formed in 2008 with Krzysztof Lepiarczyk on keyboards (formerly of Liquid Shadow), Sabina Godula-Zajac on vocals (also with Liquid Shadow), Jakub Grzeslo on drums, Piotr Grodecki on guitars and Piotr Lipka on bass, while Maciej Tomczyk contributes on lead guitars in five tracks of their debut ''Egoist'', launched in 2008 by Lynx Music and co-produced by the founder of the label Ryszard Kramarski.

Loonypark's style has strong links with the Polish Neo Prog movement, though the sound is less flexible than to say the approach of MILLENIUM or SATELLITE, while all lyrics are written in English.Musically the majority of the ten mid-length tracks are easy listening with a strong melodic content and very warm vocals, that lack strong, expressive feelings but sound good nevertheless.Pretty standard song structures are the basic core of Lonnypark's sound, featuring though some short extensions for a bit of instrumental work, containing heavier guitar moves, light symphonic textures and more flashy synthesizers.Most of the arrangements though are characterized by smooth and secure guitar lines, very soft keyboard passages and harmonic vocal parts by Sabina Godula-Zajac.So ''Egoist'' is basically driven by the deep atmospheres created by the band and to a lesser extent by some good yet limited instrumental passages.However the superb richness and the absolutely personal approach of the bigger names of the Polish scene are rather absent.

Good debut by this talented act from Krakow.Definitely worth purchasing if you like the more atmospheric and melodic side of Progressive/Art Rock.