THE SKY ABOVE THE ROOF

A couple months ago I received from Ian Blackaby (Bass on Lunar Dunes) a copy of the first SOLUS3 release called "The Sky Above the Roof", as soon as I listened it, was obvious for me that the music was not Symphonic, so asked the Folk Prog, Fusion and Eclectic teams to check them, being that such music shouldn't´ be left away from Prog Archives.

Today I found they were added to Eclectic, which is a great decision, being that their music is a delicate blend of Folk and Fusion, with a hint of Psyche and even Avant Garde, so any individual sub-genre wouldn't be able to capture the versatile mixture of sounds, atmospheres, styles and moods except Eclectic which describes bands "that trespass the boundaries of established Progressive Rock genres". So being accepted, the next step is trying to review the album, an almost impossible task due to the extremely bizarre beauty of the music.

"The Sky Above the Roof" starts with the mystic introduction in which the harp of Julie Thorton and the voice of the soprano guest Stacey Clarke capture the magic of oriental ethnic sounds.

"B5 Bounce" sounds like some sort of Electronic ethnic music with an excellent combination of instruments and voice, the subtle bass, wind instruments and efficient percussion add a touch of Arab music, even when it may seem simple for some listeners, I would love to see them trying to produce something so magical in an apparently improvisational performance.

Without loosing the ethnic atmosphere, "Blow Harp" presents us a more aggressive approach of the band, the drums and bass take the lead and the surrounding instruments create the scenery, incredibly beautiful and free.

After the gentle introduction "Sprezzatiura" takes us to Free Jazz territory without loosing the mystical atmosphere so characteristic of the band, the piano, drums and bass interplay is simply out of this world. The amazing thing is that this is not the type of album I would buy, but can't stop listening it.

Due to my mother's love for García Lorca literature, I'm used to listen his poems read with a flamenco guitar background since I'm a kid, but "Romance de la Luna Luna" by SOLUS3 breaks my schemes, the ethereal music and the poem read with such a strong accent is hard to expect, but I like it, just called my mother to tell her there was García Lorca Prog and she just can't believe it.

Now it's turn for the title song, an extremely weird combination of harp and vocals jazz oriented Celtic music (if such thing exists), please don't ask me to describe it because words are not enough, just believe me when I say it's extremely beautiful.

The album ends with "Moebius Trip", seems to me like pure jamming, like some sort of extremely free Avant Garde combined with Psychedelia, but as usual the mysterious atmosphere is captivating.

Again, I won't even try to pigeonhole the music of SOLUS3 in a determined sub-genre, I will only say that I like what I listen and that it deserves 4 stars, if you are ready to take the risk with music that breaks schemes.

Solus3's debut album, The Sky Above the Roof, is a beautiful piece of music, in unexpected ways. The music sounds to me like jazzy inflected world music with a rock edge. The instrumentation is quite unique, relying on percussion, a harp, theremin and backwards piano (I'm not even sure what the last one is), on top of loops, an actual piano, and bass. The music has several guest vocalist appearing on different tracks, who are mostly female but there is a male throat singer on "Romance de la Luna, Luna, Luna".

Whenever I put this album, it immediately puts me in a good mood - it is one of those albums that has that power - while at the same time making me feel relaxed. This really is great music to play and just lounge around to. The drum layers are often repetitive, allowing you to get into the groove of the different layers of music and just enjoy the soothing sounds of the music, like the harp and the vocals.

To me, this album strikes me as a rather original one as well, for I've yet to hear another album that uses quite this combination of instruments, or molds quites the same genres together, and so on top of the nice, relaxing feel I get from the album, there's also that sense of discovery.

My favorite tracks would be the second (B5 Bounce) - the chorus (I turn the music up) just always puts me in the right mood, and it really is quite lovely - and the aforementioned "Romance de la Luna, Luna, Luna" - the throat singing really gives it a unique, romantic feeling.