Stopover-Life (Lynx Music LM 77, 2012)
Stopover-Life is the latest album by Polish band Moonrise. Although it’s usually defined as a progressive rock band, Moonrise has a hybrid sound that makes their music hard to define. The album opens with a smooth jazz piece with solo saxophone work by Dariusz Rybka. If you are into Kenny G, you’ll certainly enjoy this.
Other pieces venture into melodic rock. At times, the band recalls Australia’s Unitopia. Moonrise’s vocalist Marcin Jajkiewicz has a beautiful delivery and is comfortable performing soft rock material as well as edgier progressive rock.
Moonrise does present some progressive rock material, although it’s a small percentage of the album. The best cut by far is ‘Flying in Empty Lands’ where the band delivers straight ahead epic progressive rock with excellent guitar, keyboard and vocal work. I could have done without some of the hard rock riffing in a few parts, but thankfully it is kept to a minimum.
Another great cut is ‘Unravel Your soul’ with dreamy keyboards, soaring guitars and beautiful vocals.
Nevertheless, the soft rock and smooth jazz influences overshadow the progressive rock tendencies.
The line-up includes Kamil Konieczniak on keyboards, guitars, bass, loops; Marcin Jajkiewicz on vocals; Marcin Kruczek on guitars; Dariusz Rybka on saxophones; and Grzegorz Bauer on drums.