MOONRISE

A really different type of album in my Prog collection. While a lot of 80's style Arena Rock and Progressive Pop seem to make up for much of the sound and style of the album, the musicianship, arrangements, guest vocalist, and overall quality make this an album worthy of mentioning.

I don't think I would have ever known about this album had I not heard Mr. Strange the closing track on an internet radio station. Yes it sounded a lot like Arena Rock but the vocalist was really good and it sounded more Proggy than most songs I like from Asia. So why not? I wrote it down and looked up videos for this album and artist. Eventually bought a couple of albums this one still being my favorite from Moonrise.

A one man project with a couple or so guests seems to be the norm for what you get on a Moonrise album. The musicianship is superb. This Kamel Konieczniak dude is really good. There are some really great acts out of Poland. This is way different from any I have heard. Very 80's Arena Rock approach but very atmospheric and reminds me a bit of those Windham Mill New Age artists in the same decade which makes this even more difficult to categorize. To complicate things more Smooth Jazz/Fusion crossover styles enter in and out of the album. Russ Freeman/The Rippingtons come to mind. It also has flashes of the Instrumental Rock that boosted in popularity at the end of the 80's and became even more popular in the following decade. Yes quite a obscure mixture of styles which really makes it interesting and something completely different in anyone's Prog collection.

Guardian Angel and Unravel Your Soul are a couple of favorites of mine and pretty much all the tracks fit the description I just mentioned. It's an interesting combination of styles. It's a combination of more conventional styles mixed together making it unconventional plus plenty of Prog thrown in. Not for everyone because some of the styles here will polarize a few. If your looking for something different and something more relaxing and mellow. Good coffee shop/lounge type Prog. This might be for you. It actually sounds quite a bit like the Smooth Jazz/New Age music my Father listened to mixed with the Prog I listen to. Somehow this album resonates with me and makes me feel good listening to it. I recommend checking it out and you be the judge.

Moonrise started as a musical project by Polish multi-instrumentalist Kamil Konieczniak and singer Łukasz Gall, the band released its debut CD entitled The Lights Of A Distant Bay in 2008. I wrote about it: "The sound of Moonrise is firmly rooted in the realm of neo-progrock bands like IQ and Pendragon. The eight compositions are very tastefully arranged with some strong breaks, lots of flowing shifting moods, a pleasant variety, a beautiful and modern keyboard sound and splendid guitar work (from sensitive, fiery and howling runs to propulsive riffs)." Then Moonrise released the successor entitled Soul's Inner Pendulum (2009, see review), my words about it: "I am sure the neo-progheads, fans of modern progrock and guitar freaks who love Latimer, Barrett and Gilmour will be delighted about Moonrise this wonderful Eighties Neo Prog inspired music." Three years later it was followed by Moonrise its third effort Stopover- Life (2012, see review), I am not familiar with the music so I was very curious to this new album entitled Travel Within, 7 years after Moonrise its previous CD.

Prime mover and multi-instrumentalist Kamil Konieczniak is the only remaining member from the original line-up. On this new album he has changed the musical direction, from typical Neo-prog more towards a blend of rock and electronic music. Like in Dive (halfway a break with the distinctive electronic music, combined with rock guitar and tight drums) and Little Stone and Between The Lies (compelling atmospheres with moving guitar and electronic sounds). In Dive (first part) and The Asnwer it is the more traditional Moonrise sound featuring Steve Rothery-like guitar work, but more laidback, with soaring strings and Mellotron violins.

The lead singer is Marcin Staszek, he has an important role on this album, colouring the music in a very intense way. But you have to be up to his distinctive voice, closer to an AOR singer like Steve Perry than prog legends Peter Gabriel, Jon Anderson or Fish. Especially in the strong track Like An Arrow: first dreamy with mellow saxophone (by guest musician Dariusz Rybka), twanging electric guitar, warm vocals, then gradually more lush and emotional, and finally bombastic eruptions with powerful and howling guitar runs, high pitched vocals, propulsive guitar riffs and drums. He also does a good job in the wonderful ballad Time with dreamy vocals and piano, along with melancholic strings.

The final song Calling Your Number features a guest role from the early mentioned singer Łukasz Gall, who worked on the first two Moonrise albums. It starts dreamy, then a slow rhythm and emotional vocals, along soaring strings. Halfway the music turns more lush with howling Rothery-like guitar and again emotional vocals, the sound is between AOR and Neo-prog.

Although the sound on this new album is far from the first Neo-prog inspired albums, Moonrise has made an interesting CD, the most original and adventurous until now. If you are up to this new Moonrise sound and this singer, Travel Within is a pleasant effort, tastefully arranged, and often more laidback, with nice work on electronics.

My rating: 3,5 star

P.s.: This review was previously published on the Dutch progrock website Background Magazine, the oldest Dutch prog source.

A much much more boring album than the previous two. The synths and sequencers sound very modern, giving it a trancey/dancey feel.

Gone are the swirling leadguitars, the groovy drums and the saxophone. Here Kamil plays all instruments (like on the debut), but the second and third album were much better in my opinion, because they sounded more organic. Also singer Marcin Staszek is not nearly as good as singer Gall, who sang on the second album.

In general this album sounds like leftovers of the third album, without the drums and excellent leadguitar the songs just come of as extended popsongs, especially because the vocals of Marcin sound so boybandish.

The former albums already had a lot of pop but at least they rocked because of the drums and guitars. This is one is just dull. Extremely dull.

In 2008 we could enjoy Polish formation Moonrise its debut CD entitled The Lights Of A Distant Bay, led by multi- instrumentalist Kamil Konieczniak with a contribution of Lukasz Gall (from other Polish band Millenium) on vocals. The next year Moonrise released a second album entitled Soul's Inner Pendulum and in 2012 (their swansong?) Stopover-Life. This review is about their second effort.

The sound on Soul's Inner Pendulum is in the vein of The Lights Of A Distant Bay. But due to Dariusz Rybka his saxophone play and especially Marcin Kruczek his guitar work, often Pink Floyd comes to my mind. Most of the 8 compositions start mellow and then turn into a slow rhythm with a compelling atmosphere, embellished with wonderful solo's on guitar and sometimes keyboards.

A good example is the opener Awakened, it starts dreamy with soaring keyboards, acoustic rhythm guitar and melancholical vocals. Gradually the sound becomes more lush featuring first violin-Mellotron waves and then a spectacular synthesizer solo with propulsive guitar riffs and a fiery Gilmourian guitar solo, what a start!

In Angels Hidden Plan we hear soaring violin-Mellotron with tender piano and then sensitive guitar runs with twanging acoustic guitar, followed by intense saxophone play and again soaring violin-Mellotron, simply beautiful.

More heavy and dynamic is Icarus (Full Moon 2) with a mid-tempo featuring tight drums and a powerful wah-wah drenched guitar solo.

In Feeling Like I Lost My Mind the focus is also on the guitar, we can enjoy a strongly build-up guitar solo that takes us to Eighties Neo Prog Heaven.

The joy continues with the epic final composition The Greatest Miracle (more than 13 minutes). First mellow with saxophone, a howling, Gilmourian guitar solo and a fluent synthesizer solo. Then the climate turns into more bombastic with pleasant vocals and powerful work on saxophone and guitar. And finally a very compelling part with a guitar solo in the vein of Camel's Andy Latimer (Nude-era), goose bumps!

I am sure the neo-progheads, fans of modern progrock and guitar freaks who love Latimer, Barrett and Gilmour will be delighted about Moonrise this wonderful Eighties Neo Prog inspired music.

My rating: 3,5 star.

See my social comment for a review about new interesting Polish band The Adekaem (not on PA).

It never ceases to amaze me at just how much great music continues to come out of Poland. This is the debut album from Moonrise, who have put out two more since this was released in 2008, yet there is just one constant, namely Kamil Konieczniak. That's because this is a one-man band, with Kamil providing all the music with Milennium singer Lukasz Gall brought in to provide lyrics and vocals. Perhaps it isn't surprising that much of this album is instrumental, what is surprising though is that this never comes across as project as it really does feel like a band. He is no mean guitarist, but it is the keyboards where he shines, with some beautifully touches, especially on piano. This is fine neo-prog, with influences from Hogarth era Marillion, IQ and Pendragon vying with the likes of Jadis and Camel to be heard.

Although for the most part the guitar sound is quite different, it is with Jadis that he has the most similarities; but that is far more to do with the arrangements and approach than the domination of any single instrument. Lukasz is renowned for having a great clear voice, and here he shows off his best Paul Menel/Gary Chandler/John Wetton stylings, providing an additional level of class to an album that is already rich with it. This is something that the listener can drift into and get a great deal from, whether it is the wonderful arrangements, the melodies, or the clarity of thinking. Poland as a country is an incredible melting pot for great music, especially for prog, and there seems to be no end of bands that need to be discovered and heard by a much greater audience. Time to add Moonrise to that ever-growing list.

This is one for those of you who like the idea of taking neo-prog textures and compositional approaches (including guitar tones more than a little reminiscent of Marillion's Steve Rothery) and then making things mellow. Indeed, I suspect this album will prove to be rather polarising amongst listeners; there'll be some who find its laid-back, relaxing tone to be extremely pleasant, whilst others may find themselves bored and wondering when on Earth something is going to actually *happen* on these compositions. I didn't realise neo-prog bordered on new age relaxation music, but Moonrise seem to have found the dividing line between the two, and whilst I can appreciate that it is an interesting experiment in that respect I can't see myself returning to this album especially regularly.

After his debut was warmly received, Kamil Konieczniak decided to work on a sophomore album, this time though forming a regular band.Lukasz Gall would be again part of the project, but only as a guest appearance on vocals.The new Moonrise, besides Konieczniak, officially consisted of Grzegorz Jakiel on drums, Dariusz Rybka on sax and an experienced Marcin Kruczek, who played guitar around the time with Mindfields and Nemezis.The new album, released again on Lynx in 2008, was entitled ''Soul's inner pendulum'', with Konieczniak handling all keyboards, bass and some guitar parts.

The formation of Moonrise had dramatically changed with the addition of the new members, the general style was not with Konieczniak being the main composer of the project.''Soul's inner pendulum'', exactly like ''The lights of a distant bay'' twists around the softer side of Progressive Rock, mixing the smooth Polish Neo Prog with spacey and orchestral overtones.The music remains well-crafted and quite calm with long GILMOUR-esque electric solos combined with delicate acoustic passages and Gall offering his always mature and emotional voice to the compositions.Plenty of atmospheric Mellotron parts and extended piano lines add the appropriate depth to the lyrical content, while the synthesizers have more of a cosmic and trippy feeling in a FLOYD-ian mood.The pieces are pretty easy-listening with lovely melodic lines, but rarely do they get off the ground for more bombastic and dynamic explosions.It kinds of remind of the music of MILLENIUM or even SATELLITE as Konieczniak's basic guides, drawing inspirationS that start from the atmospheric music of PINK FLOYD, flirt with the lyrical tendency of MARILLION and borrows the melodic part of modern Polish Progressive Rock.

A nice album for fans of atmospheric and melodic Neo Prog, that hides much more than you can listen at the first spin.Well-arranged and executed material, that works well both as background music and as a proper listening.Recommended.

Lately I've listened to a lot of Polish Neo-Prog (unbeatable combination: ProgArchives and YouTube!) and found a whole new world of good music. The word 'new' refers only to the fact that these several bands I'm hearing for the first time, not that the musical style would be anyhow unfamiliar to me. MOONRISE is a good example of it. It's melodic, clean-sounding and well produced Neo comparable to Hogarth-era MARILLION and PENDRAGON with the emphasis on keyboards and guitars. Like the reviewers before me have pointed out, this music is "safe" and easily pleases any friend of accessible and melodic Neo-Prog. There are no bad tracks at all, everything is, in a word, pleasant. The negative side of it is that it's not very original or deeply impressive; the delighted first impression probably loses its power as time passes. It's quite obvious that the world is crowded with gifted bands like these, even if one may never come across them without the helping hand of Internet.

The core of MOONRISE are multi-instrumentalist and composer Kamil Konieczniak and singer Lukasz Gall. In this debut album Kamil plays all the instruments, which is remarkable as the music doesn't suffer at all of instrumentally narrow or thin nature. Gall's voice is pleasant, it reminds me a bit of Kim Beacon on Tony Banks's A Curious Feeling. The compositions flow nicely and carry also extended lengths (7-10 minutes) without losing the touch. There's emotion but it never reaches pathos; for example IQ packs their music with much more drama. This is mellower. But that's just fine as I often enjoy mellow prog. So, this is a very recommendable band if you enjoy safe and clean Neo-Prog. 3½ stars, rounded up for the good cover art and album length (53 minutes).

This is the kind of prog music I really adore.

The overall atmospheric vibe is very pleasing and I really enjoy the voice of Lukasz Gall from Millenium (another Polish band).

The solos on guitar and saxophone are really outstanding and add a nice flavour to the music.

The main man of this band is Kamil Konieczniak, and he plays keys, guitars and bassguitar. He's the composer and musical director. He adds spacey synths and really knows how to write good songs.

Some may find the music a bit boring. But it's not meant to be a metal-album nor a heavy rock album. The key element of this band and this record is creating soundscapes and atmosphere.

It's not 100% neoprog, because some of the music is really accessible. But as he said: it's the atmosphere that counts. And it works totally.

You can compare some of the music to RPWL, Pink Floyd and even Tangerine Dream.

A very solid work from this neo prog band from Poland

Poland seems to be now one of the most prolific countries of the neo prog...I understand why many british neo prog bands love to present concerts there.

Well their 3d album ...and the experience shows fruits ,the musical concept definition is accomplished : a very melodic ..romantic...light neo prog.

Beautiful melodies...nice vocals ..good instrumentation..good arrangements.

So I Feel this is the response to British neo prog bands that are in the line of this prog music....lets say....Marillion(Hogarth era first albums) and Jadis...maybe Riversea too.

So I had a pleasant listening to this album.

Four stars.