Daymoon - 2022 - Erosion

(71:34; Daymoon)

It has been six years since the release of Daymoon’s third album, ‘Cruz Quebrada’ (which I haven’t heard), and we have to go back to 2013 for the release of their second album, ‘Fabric of Space Divine’ which I was very impressed with indeed. They are indicated as crossover prog on PA, but that is in its truest sense in that they cross over multiple genres but the one which they most relate to with this release is eclectic. This is the first album where it is much more of a band as opposed to multi-instrumentalist Fred Lessing, an inner core of musicians, and an outer cast of many as Fred has now created a different version of the band and it will be interesting to see how they progress. André Marques (keyboards, drums and percussion, tuned percussion, vocals, stringed and ethnic instruments) has been involved since the second album as part of the inner core, but the others have either had minor parts or are here for the first time. This includes new lead singer, Lavínia Roseiro, which is quite a switch as previously the band have had male vocalists. The line-up is completed by Thomas Olsson (electric guitar, keyboards), who is also executive producer for Isuldurs Bane, Luca Calabrese (trumpet – also in Isuldurs Bane) and Paulo Chagas (tenor recorder, oboe, alt recorder, fujara, flute, sopranino and bass clarinets).

Lavinia is a stage and TV actress, and she uses these skills in ways which have more in common with Clive Nolan’s theatrical works than “standard” prog, often taking the band into areas of art rock, while they switch and move in different manners so one never knows what is going to happen. With a trumpet being a main instrument, we get very different timbres and styles than one normally experiences within the genre, and when placed against a xylophone as on “The Forest Within Us” one is no longer in the world of prog (in one sense, but very much so in another), and one no longer understands the path we are on. Some paths are straight, others wind, and even others split in multiple different possibilities, but this one is fractured and is more like steppingstones than a continual journey and therefore the route is going to be a difficult one, but worth the effort all the same. We shift between jazz, artrock, Zappa-esque prog and so much more, never knowing what is coming in the next bar, let alone the next song.

This album is deep, yet at times lighthearted and playful, but the disparate nature of it is deliberate as it relates deeply to the lyrics, and together they combine to place the world we live in under a microscope. This is not an easy album to listen to, even though its component pieces may be more palatable individually, yet it need to be ingested as a whole as it is only then that its deep meaning and hidden beauty shine through.

Kev Rowland, June 2022

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