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!

It's almost criminal to me the almost total lack of attention being given to the new album by Sonus Umbra. Easily the best album yet from this band, and I liked the other 3 but Winter Soulstice raises the bar big time , mainly because it is almost a totally different band , the exception being Luis Nassar who is the leader of this band and always was he is and has always been the principle songwriter and is also a fine bass player, getting to for the first time concentrate almost solely on playing bass whereas in the old formation he played a little bit of everything. Funnily enough as good as this album is, especially musically , the band now consists of 7 full time members (including the lead singer who I don't believe plays any instruments) and these guys bring it, Nassar has assembled an outstanding group of musicians. But back to the funnily enough part, it still sounds like a Sonus Umbra album, thanks to the lyrics that Luis writes. But this new band takes it to another level musically. For me this is one of the best albums I have heard in 2013 and I hope it gets the recognition that it deserves. And there is more good news , they are getting ready to go into the studio in January , 2014 to start recording the next one, I know I'll be looking forward to it.

US band SONUS UMBRA originated some 20 years ago in Mexico, at first operating under the moniker Radio Silence, if I have understood their history correctly, but since sometime around the Millennium the band has been US based. Their first album under their current name was released back in 2000, and a further three have followed since. "Winter Soulstice" is the most recent of these and was released in 2013.

Sonus Umbra's fourth full length production "Winter Soulstice" is an album that isn't easy to place within a carefully defined context. There's elements of acoustic rock and progressive folk rock in here, alongside classic hard rock or hard prog elements as well as passages that arguably have more of a symphonic oriented expression. All elements are combined into carefully assembled compositions where subtle details and controlled nuances dominated to a much greater extent than the flamboyant and dramatic. Progressive rock for feinschmeckers if you like, an album to be enjoyed by those who love listening closely and with full attention to an album and find joy in discovering the finer details.