WINTER SOULSTICE

So,8 years since the last SONUS UMBRA cd was released-8 years of a long wait to see ,to listen the new album of one of the most original and sensitive bands in today's prog rock world! Finally WINTER SOULSTICE sees the day and we are spoiled with a superbe album in a great digipack presentation-and-the most important thing-we have more than 70 minutes of great music!The most important thing is that Luis Nasser,the mastermind behind this band-is now surrounded almost by only new musicians!A new vocalist-that's the most important thing- only the drummer seems to be the same like on the previous album!The typical SONUS sound is present-because we can speak about a particular and unique SONUS UMBRA souns-yes,it's still here,and I like it so much!Not overproduced,but with a very nice and clear sound-WINTER SOULSTICE is a very sensitive and beautiful album,loaded with long compositions and long instrumental passages!The voice of the new guy in the band fits perfectly well with the music ,sometimes it reminds me about Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull,but less nasal anyway!Hard to find the strong and the weak points of the album-or the strong or the less strong compositions of the album!There's a strong cohesion and clever balance between the songs-most ot them are midtempo and the superbe sound of the acoustic l guitar is impressive-some nice interventions of the cello are very inspired-the whole SONUS UMBRA music is so different compared to any prog band-it's a strong neoprog music,out of trends and modern musical directions-it's music from the soul,made with burning passion for the love of good music !We are invited in a musical journey,there's a marvelous experience-and,in the end,we don't feel how exciting more then 70 minutes can pass!Definitelly,the most mature and elaborated album to date for SONUS UMBRA-a very solid effort,intelligent compositions,nice and poetic texts-strong musicianship too,all the musical conception of this unique band is wonderful!Strong 4.5 stars for a very special and sensitive album,a musical delicacy!