TISARIS

Once humanity is the pinnacle of Tisaris trilogy and more than an excellent addition to any symphonic prog lover. You will like it if you like Pink Floyd The Wall, Gilmour's post-floydian guitars, and also Roger Water's post-floydian composition. Production, dynamics, voices have all greatly increased over the previous album. Once Humanity, Once in a time, are among the best tracks, full of all that you can expect from a nice symphonic prog : languishing guitares underlined by piano arpeggios (or the opposite), step tempo changes, bombastic moments, crying voices over strings ensembles, organ chords, etheral choruses over acoustic guitar - and melody. The Sophia Conflict is a nice echoing pair, the first track driven by acoustic guitar and organs, the second by electric guitar and piano. Laodicea, Silent Prophecy, Sub-particle are instrumental tracks, pleasant but forgottable. Christopher's Trance I is more roccky than else but symphony is back with Christopher's Trance II, Armageddon an Amen (the best piece in my opinion).

You will liket it if you like piano driven symphonic prog. It is a very nice, promising, debut for the band. It clearly borrows to Pink Floyd (Chorus and drums in the last track are straight out of The Wall), mixed with a tint of Supertramp / Roger Hogdson (A sinner), and some neo-prog influences, even some jazzy bars. While a bit lacking, production is still very good. Most tracks include vocals ; André Vieira voice is a bit rough but warm and in tune. All tracks are enjoyable and melodic, but Spinning Loom is the track that should not have been included, the intruder there. Elegy To Magdalene is the most memorable track, with good dynamics great keyboards and melody. It's not the best album of the band ; tracks are heterogeneous. Still there is probably not a single track that you will not listen twice or even more.

Tisaris is one of the better examples of symphonic prog acts from Brazil in the early '90s. Offering 3 albums in that period Tisaris manage to recive aplauses from listners and respectable reviews specialy for their second album Once Humaninty. Issued in 1994 their second album is considered by fans their best from all 3. The debute album see the light in 1992 and is named What's beyond. This is a fairly good symphonic prog album with lots of instrumental sections and bombastic arrangements, all are pleasent and well played. There are some complex instrumental sections that are really awesome, specially the guitar chops are intresting for sure. The sound is not among the best I've heared on a prog band, but hey what the heck the music really matters after all, at least to me. So, a very decent and fair work by this unknown brazilian band, is clear that they worked hard on this release, but I can't say is something really excellent and inovative. Fans of symphonic prog can take some spins I think Tisaris worth to be discovered by many listners as possible. Similar maybe at some point with High Wheel, and bands who incorporated in their symphonic prog arranagements spacey long instrumental parts. 3 stars for sure.

3.5 really

Tisaris is one of the better examples of symphonic prog acts from Brazil in the '90s. Offering 3 albums in that period Tisaris manage to recive aplauses from listners and respectable reviews specialy for their second album Once Humaninty. Issued in 1994 their second album is considered by fans their best from all 3, I'm agree while I was not very impressed overall. This is a concept album clocking around 70 min with long instrumental parts going from pure symphonic prog to more spacey passages. If the instrumental arrangements are pleasent most of the time, I was not impressed by the voice and how vocal parts are composed here, to much time very theatrical, not really intresting to my ears. The album overall is complex, very nice are the guitar parts, even great, keyboards aswell, a perfect example is the opening track . Once Humanity, very worthy symphonic prog piece with the ingredients to be a strong tune, the rst are ok with some plus on the middle of the album who is almost entirely instruemntal and very good aswell. So, a very decent and fair work by this unknown brazilian band, is clear that they worked hard on this release, but I can't say is something really excellent and inovative. Fans of symphonic prog can take some spins I think Tisaris worth to be discovered by many listners as possible. Similar maybe at some point with High Wheel, and bands who incorporated in their symphonic prog arranagements spacey long instrumental parts. 3 stars rounded to 3,5 for some pieces.

TISARIS ? What´s Beyond

First album of a very interesting brazilian band. They come from Lavras, a small town with a fine university and crowded with students, which leads to a good environment for musical creation. I was presented to them in the first half of the nineties in the city of Belo Horizonte by a fine progressive fan who owned a very good cd store at that time. And what a kind of good recommendation he did!

The album is clearly neo prog, based on a strong presence of guitar, keyboard and vocals. And what a strong singer Andrei Viera is! Sometimes he "slides" (literal translation of a brazilian slang meaning "distraction"), and we can notice his accent; and this, in reality, adds a good taste to his singing. The "kitchen" (rhythm section), provided by Chebli Haddad (bass), and Edson Cruz (drums), fits the musical approach of others performers very well. Also, in order to complete their artistic effort, we have a strong story to be told by means of well elaborated lyrics and music. It is easy to identify them reaching the main requests for a good progressive album.

So it is a strong album that yields three stars. However, the band´s whole work (two more albums) deserves more than only three. The rating in What´s Beyond is not higher due to a lack of a perfect production (this is easy to understand if we consider the condition they have for recording a first album); as well as lack of maturity as a band. Another aspect is the need of adding touches of folk to a Brazilian progressive band sound; as it was perfectly done by master Marco Antonio Araújo.

But the best of Tisaris is not here, it will come yet. They took their time, became more mature and reached their peak in their next effort, Once Humanity!

TISARIS ? Once Humanity

Here we have Tisaris at their best! All good promises and expectations anyone could have when listening to their first and previous work, What´s Beyond, were fulfilled here. Excellent art cover work; a concept album with a passionate lyrical content; all the members of the band playing together in a very mature way; compositional skills at top; and so all of those aspects led to a very homogeneous album but with some very strong and elaborated pieces. There must be special attention in hearing songs like Once Humanity, Once In Time and Silent Prophecy, where you can identify all the aspects which were commented above.

Once Humanity strongly matches four stars. I did not consider only what I said above; but also the surrounding conditions for these guys almost 20 years ago. This is definitely not easy or simple for them to perform the work done at that time with available resources, and not only did they make this excellent work, but also two more clearly progressive works sharing many things in common . This is an important point because it makes it possible for us to see their work as a whole. One can identify a fine artistic story being told through their three albums. Also, one can see a nice progressive musical project they got to achieve!

This kind of "story" is something clearly crucial for me when it comes to progressive music. What are the intentions of musicians when composing a progressive album - or even any other king of music? - It is nice to search for interactions among cover paintings, lyrics and music, as for example, when one tries to see interactions that a guy like Rick Wakeman put in his instrumental masterpiece "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" relating music and personalities - even if it was only imagined personalities, art has this kind of freedom. - It is interesting to see that it was exactly the lack of a "story" in the musical work of the well assessed Brazilian group Bacamarte that led me to rate them much lower.

Once Humanity deserves everyone´s attention due to everything said above. Probably with some strong influences of Brazilian folk I could give them five stars; but I comprehend it would change their art proposal so much, when translated by means of music.

TISARIS ? The Power Of Mith

Here we come to the end of Tisaris´s trilogy. This is a three star album, but not for the same reasons of their first What´s Beyond. They are now mature as musicians; it was clear when we see how much the second Once Humanity is improved if compared to the first one. But in this last one the band seems and sounds tired. I also see a kind of haste to complete their job, to complete the task of three excellent progressive albums. That can be explained maybe for the pressures of modern life or maybe for the difficulties of living from non commercial music - although excellent in quality, we all know how rich progressive music is - as well as perhaps for the need to search for new life projects. All those aspects could have decreased their art energy available for The Power Of Mith. Maybe this is why it is not so consistent as the superb Once Humanity.

Of course this is a personal opinion. Even not showing an evolution when compared to the previous work, The Power Of Mith ends Tisaris´s adventure in a very appropriate way. Their overall work is worth a careful listening. It is not a single album effort, but instead, they are three consistent albums, with one of them clearly above the average. I was very lucky to be in touch with their music; and it is easy to recommend them - mainly their master effort Once Humanity - to progressive fans.

This is the debutalbum from the Brasilian band Tisaris. It contains 13 tracks that in general sound bombastic, evoking early Marillion (keyboards) and Pink Floyd (Gilmourian guitarwork), featuring lots of shifting moods, breaks and soli. The violin solo in the opener "Animee" is very moving and showcases the variety that Tisaris offers. I agree with fellow reviewer Geezer that this album suffers from a bad production. Nonetheless, Tisaris has made a promising debut-CD that sounds very pleasant and entertaining but there is not an inch Brasilian in Tisaris, they could have been a British or USA band.

www.progwalhalla.com

**1/2

An average album by this interesting Brazilian band. The name Tisaris means "the bridge to quintessence". This is their debut album. It's a concept album with many tracks extracted from the rock opera "The Story of Blaze and Darkman", a tale about two ordinary but opposite characters in the brazilian society - the rich and the wretched. As you might guess, this album sounds quite a bit like a symphonic rock opera.

The musicians are clearly skilled but this album suffers from a really bad production. I can't help that it affects the listening enjoyment a lot. This album shows a great potential but somehow all the components just doesn't come together in an effective way. A nice try for a debut album though. The lyrics are in English and the great singer Andrei Vieira sings basically completely without accent. The highlight tracks include "The Reflection", "Elegy to Magdalene" and "Libertas Quae".

Conclusion: An ambitious work. Worth a listen and includes some beautiful moments.