Fifth Daughter - 2025 - Stellar Season

(43:02; Regal Crabomophone)

Track list:
1. The Eternal Dance 7:52
2. Become Sun 5:46
3. House of Ra 4:55
4. Forever Knowing 4:08
5. In Love with the Sun 5:58
6. Season of Fasting/Call for the Equinox 6:20
7. Even Winter 8:03

Line-up:
Nicholas Whittaker
James Howarth
with:
Luke Foster
Dave Wileman
Will Howes


Prolusion.
UK band Fifth Daughter is a new constellation, revolving around the creative talents of Nicolas Whittaker and James Howarth. After enlisting the skills of fellow musicians Luke Foster, Dave Wileman and Will Howes, the band were ready with their debut album "Stellar Season" at the start of 2025, an album that was released through UK label Fruits de Mer Records and their Regal Crabomophone imprint.

Analysis.
While Fruits de Mer Records specialize in psychedelic music rather than progressive rock per se, there will always be a considerable overlap between those types of music. Hence it is not all that unexpected to see that a majority of the people involved with the creation and recording of this album has a background from the progressive rock band Diagonal.

What the creative duo that is the foundation of this project have conjured up in this case is a distinctly vintage inspired landscape though, with sounds and compositions of the kind that to some extent sounds a little bit like a lost relic from the 1960s.

Gentle and mellow landscapes with distinct pastoral qualities is the foundation for everything here. The pace is generally on the slower part of the spectrum, the vocals tend to be low key, careful and with that sleepy quality that is such a feature in some psychedelic rock traditions, and the various psychedelic elements in use otherwise also tends to be low key. Other than the lead instrument overlays though, which provides a more tangible and dominant display on top. And the occasional former and more vibrant tracks, where a driving bass line is put to good use.

Tones, timbres and instrument details pull in a lot of elements from the folk music tradition throughout here, and I guess psychedelic progressive folk rock may be a fair general description of the landscapes explored here. Dreamladen and careful displays of that form, albeit with some passages that takes on a more floating, searching and distinct psychedelic orientation. And while I can't point to any specific details to that end, I did get some subtle associations towards The Beatles here too. But that may just come down to a few vocal details here and there. Be that as it may be, that associations did emphasize my notion of the 1960s flavor being a presence in these compositions.

Fifth Daughter do expand the boundaries of the landscapes explored a little bit though, and that is by adding in some instrument details of the more expressive kind. Not in a dominant manner mind you, but as subtle details to be enjoyed by the more attentive listeners out there. While world music inspired rhythms makes up at least a tiny part of that expansion, the more prominent use of this expansion is by way of what I'd describe as jazz-influenced instrument details. An addition to these excursions that, in my view at least, document in a most charming manner that the relation between folk music, psychedelic music and jazz is a fairly close one. Or at least that aspects of these styles can be combined in a rather seamless and elegant manner.

Conclusion.
Those who are fond of vintage sounds, pastoral landscapes and a gentle, elegant variety of psychedelic progressive rock with distinct folk music inspiration and a little bit of jazz seasoning should find plenty to enjoy on this debut album by Fifth Daughter. For my sake art least I'd recommend this album to those who know and love the gentler aspects of 60s folk-oriented psychedelic progressive rock in particular. A calm, charming and elegant foray into the folk inspired psychedelic and progressive rock universe that sounds like it was made in a more innocent era of human history.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, February 2025

Links:
https://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/