CRUZ QUEBRADA

Portuguese project DAYMOON is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Fred Lessing. He has been creating material for well over a quarter of a century, but didn't choose to start releasing any of it until 2011. "Cruz Quebrada" is the third studio album to be issued under the Daymoon moniker, and was released through the German label Progressive Promotion Records in the spring of 2016.

Daymoon's third studio album "Cruz Quebrada" comes across as an emotionally laden production, at times harrowingly so, to the extent that the raw undercurrents of emotion manages to overcome slightly weaker aspects in terms of structure and cohesion, mix and production as well as the lead vocals. Those who tend to enjoy bands that explore similar territories to what Pink Floyd did in the mid to late 70's appear as a key audience for this album, and then especially those who enjoy folk music details, a select few pastoral sequences and occasional chaotic, dramatic instrument effects, used to expand these boundaries.

DAYMOON's creation "Cruz Quebrada" released in 2016 can be called as another treasure casket for innovative imagination. It's quite a tough work for us to classify this album into a subgenre because of a obvious musical diversity upon the sound world ... psychedelic, avantgarde, jazz rock, crossover to pop ... what a variation in Fred's inner space. Very splendid lots of heartwarming moments can be heard even whilst minor key melody lines like reminders of serious pressure are launched.

Without any suspicion I cannot help feeling this multiplicity over musical genres should be Daymoon's brilliant mindscape itself. We can hear a tragic movement at a point, a pleasant vibe at another, or something like mental anguish ... such an aggregation of crying heart can be touched via the masterpiece suite "The River" full of unsettled mind between life and death, and this phenomenon would make us consider unavoidable events of life.

Quite sensitive and fragile mind whisper can be heard amongst massively various rock elements. Wondering why it be hard to digest this album comprehensively ... guess there might be a mass of Fred's "humanity" in my humble opinion, and this might be the reason we cannot digest his melodic message easily but directly absorb it without ourselves. Fred's strong intention for "humanity" is there, not simple nor easy to understand, that would amaze us apparently. Yes apparently I love this stuff.

If you follow my reviews you should know the name Daymoon. This is a Portuguese project led by Fred Lessing. The project started out after Fred, that played in the yearly 80's in some Prog bands, organised a home studio and started to record his ideas in late 90's. Only in 2009 Fred started to record a proper debut album and now we have the third full length of the band, Cruz Quebrada (Broken Cross), released by Progressive promotion Records earlier this year.

But before going any further or even talk about the music the CD contains, we have to address what this album is about.

Cruz Quebrada is a concept album that Fred put together, painstakingly, after his wife's death in 2012. The album basically deals with what Lessing had to go through and his state of mind during this hard period of his life. On top of that, all artist's proceeds go to cancer fighters Europacolon.

The album is divided into two parts "Out" (the first half) and "In" (the second half). The "Out" part was written shortly before his wife's death and also shortly after. And as you should expect after reading about how the album came to be, Cruz Quebrada has a fair bit of darker moments, especially in the first half, including many cacophonic moments ('Cruz Quebrada', 'Fish Dissected', 'Shipwreck' and 'Whalebone'), but it also has some melancholic 'pondering' moments ('Where It Hurts Most', 'Whalebone' and the beautiful 'Thyme').

The second half ("In") comprises the suite 'The River', it was divided into 9 tracks but it's really one long suite of over 25 minutes. This part was written later on, between 2014 and 2015, and it's more uplifting, still confusing, but more 'open'.

Cruz Quebrada gathers Fred Lessing (vocals, bass, guitar, harp, flute, keyboards, percussion), André Marques (drums, keyboards, bass, guitar, recording, vocals), Bruno Evangelista (vocals) and Adriano Pereira (clarinet) as the main band, just as in their previous album Fabric Of Space Divine (2013).

I will not lie, it's very hard to listen the whole 71 minutes of Cruz Quebrada, not because the music is bad, it's the very contrary, the music is great! But it is very heavy, it is very dense, and it's one of those albums that you have to sit and really listen, otherswise it doesn't make much sense for you to even try. Cruz Quebrada is rich, so rich that is even impossible to pinpoint what style of Prog Rock Daymoon plays.

All in all, if you like the kind of music that challenges you and drags you into the record, Cruz Quebrada is just for you, and honestly, it's worth it!