MOONLIGHT SKY

The musicians from the Slovene band Moonlight Sky are pretty much well established on the music scene in this country, but not under that name. They have built their reputation by working with more renowned and more commercial artists.

The band members had been playing together for some time before they went into the studio. They were already a highly regarded live act. There was only a question if they could reproduce their live dexterity and energy on a studio album. My answer would be yes. They managed to combine their many influence, yet still were able to keep a unique sound of their own.

Moonlight Sky obviously has many influences ranging from Santana, Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd, to lesser known Yugoslavian bands like Leb i Sol. They combine elements of jazz, hard rock, space rock, Balkan folk, funk and classical music. Sometimes these influences are merged together within a single song, while at other times (more often) individual songs are representative of a certain style. In such fashion, songs like "Lunin Svit", "Angel" and "Rigg's Family Shot" belong more to classic hard rock with bluesy undertones, while songs like "Devet Osem", "Pluton" and "Stirje Svetovi" are firmly rooted in jazz-rock. "Ocean" is a space rock song that is reminiscent of Pink Floyd and Eloy in their best days. While these songs stick to mostly a single style, there is always a sense of jazz leanings within the band. Whenever they can, they go into fusion mode and I think it is at those moments that they are at their best. I would also say that "Ocean" is a beautiful song that evokes the magic of an ocean very precisely.

Moonlight Sky is a band that excels in long instrumental passages. They do have a vocalist (also the keyboard player), who is not the best in his field (not bad, just nothing special), but the vocals are rare and subdued, so whatever problem with the sung parts, isn't much of an issue.

As I've already stated Moonlight Sky are best when they play instrumental segments. Their various influences make them a band that one doesn't tire of very quickly. It is nice to see that in my country, which is sorely lacking in interesting prog music, a new band has finally emerged that appears to have all the qualities of a great band. I look forward to the upcoming releases.