SONUS UMBRA - INTERVIEW

SONUS UMBRA is creative and marvelous progressive band coming from  Mexico, a melodic atmospheric mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Rush, King  Crimson & Dream Teather. Your new album "Snapshots from Limbo",
released by the great label MOONCHILD, is a dream of climates &  voyages. Krepuskulum interviewed the band leader LUIS NASSER (B/K/G/V)  by e-mail.

Krepuskulum: Talk to us about SONUS UMBRA's trajectory?


Luis Nasser: Well, Sonus Umbra began in Mexico City in 1993 under the name Radio Silence. We played there for a couple of years, but things were very hard, and eventually the band broke up. After a while, I moved to the USA, to work on a physics PhD, and I joined a Baltimore band called Kurgans bane, who were looking for a bass player at the time. They were getting ready to record an album, and through them not only did I discover John Grant and Secret Sound Studios (Iluvatar have recorded all their albums  there), but also the whole progressive underground world, through the Baltimore hub which is Orion Studios. All the knowledge i gained through this process, and my involvement in Kurgan's Bane was very important. Ricardo and Andres were also living in the USA at this time (1998), and we dicided to release a demo disc with a selection of some of the songs Radio Silence used to play, just to see what the prog fans would think of it. This became "laughter in the dark", and to our amazement it got really great reviews almost everywhere. Some people didn't like the vocals or the production, but what they don't realize is that it was really a demo, made on a tascam 8-track cassette portastudio, and we did it almost as a joke. We were fortunate, because Brian Hirsch of Moonchild records liked it enough to offer us a contract. This really motivated us to work, and I decided than rather than re-record the demo, we owed it to Brian to give him some brand new music. I had a selection of songs ready, and the result was "Snapshots from Limbo". We also changed our name to Sonus Umbra because we discovered with Brian that there already were bands with that name, and there was no sense in getting in trouble, arguing, or going to court with them. I still play in Kurgan's Bane. In fact, Jeff Laramee, who is the Drummer in Sonus Umbra, is also the drummer in Kurgan's Bane, so it all works out nicely. If you like prog-flavored hard rock, you should check out www.kurgansbane.com


SONUS UMBRA play progressive rock, a musical style underground now. Do you believe that progressive rock will go to the top in future for another time?

I hate to be so cynical, but I really don't see how. The whole marketplace is growing more and more utilitarian with each passing day. People, in general, seem to have the attention span of a mosquito when it comes down to the music they choose, and they are certainly not open to new things. Prog music demands full attention. You can't really play it as "background", and it's not exactly dance-friendly either. In the late 60's, it was a totally different scene. If bands like Pink Floyd came out today, with music like "A Saucerful of secrets" they would have never succeeded because no major label would have even given them a second glance. Back then, executives thought it was all crap, but gambled on the kids buying it anyway. Many did.

Progressive music can only make a comeback, of sorts, if big record labels begin to take a serious interest, and that can only happen if they stop being excessively greedy. Just because it's "Rock" does not mean it has to sell in the millions. If they market it just like they do jazz acts, and give it that same level of promotion, it could do well at that level. Most prog fans usually have the same degree of sophistication as jazz fans, and I honestly think there could be an overlap between the two audiences.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is likely to happen, because the average person is of the opinion that prog rock is mostly self-indulgent crap. What really amazes me is that they have seldom actually ever heard it themselves before issuing their opinion. They merely parrot and respond not only to mainstream radio hosts and MTV, but also to people like Phil
Collins, who showed big labels that even Prog giants like Genesis could churn out mealy, sappy bullshit tunes for the holy dollar bottomline.Genesis effectively traded in most of the fans who helped them become a household name for a much larger paycheck and a shot at a grammy. So why would a label invest time and effort promoting something with comparatively slim returns, when they can focus their attention on bands willing to let them N'Sync everything they do?


What are your favourite prog bands and what are the 10 best albums  of the prog history in your opinion?

There are many great new prog bands that have come out in recent years. As far as the "classic" prog bands, I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Rush and Jethro Tull. But there are so many great new ones as well. I love Discipline, Matthew Parmenter's band. I am a huge Spock's beard fan. I also very much into After Crying, Uncle Gut,
Kopecky and Pain of salvation.

The best prog albums, in my opinion, are the following:

1) Pink Floyd - Dark side of the Moon
2) Il Balletto di Bronzo - YS
3) Spock's Beard - The Light
4) King Crimson - Red
5) Discipline - Unfolded Like Staircase
6) Jethro Tull - Thick as a brick
7) Transatlantic - SMPTe
8) The Who - Quadrophenia
9) Roger Waters - The pros and cons of hitch hiking
10) Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

I list them in no particular order, except that I do think the
Dark side of the moon is the best record ever made, bar none. There will
never be another like it.


The electronic music invade prog scenary now. Do you believe that  the electronic is the future of the music?

I don't think that at all. "Electronica" brings new sounds and therefore new possibilities, but it's really just a fad, in my opinion.
Some bands are quite unexpectedly making very interesting industrial and "electronic" prog music though. A good example is "the Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails. It's produced by Bob Ezrin, and there are a lot of truly amazing arrangements and moods in this album. I'm not a big fan of Trent Reznor at all, but "The Fragile" is surprisingly clever and powerful.

The lyrics of new album are very complex and deep, some are dark  too. Do you believe in the future of human race or we are walking to  the end?? What is the meaning of INSECTS tree acts? Is it a metaphor  to humanity??

This is a very difficult question to answer. There are so many things that are wrong, from my point of view. At the same time, most people probably wouldn't agree with my opinion, especially those who happily spend most of their time away from work with their eyes glued to the idiot box, watching really stupid celebrity gossip or talk shows like Oprah. Either that or going to the mall to buy all kinds of glossy crap they don't really need. Does this greedy and stupid mentality signify the end? I don't know. I can only say that sometimes it feels that way, walking around in vidiotland...

Insects is really a horror story, but it does make a statement about this sense of alienation in our modern society. In the story, some average guy, lonely and broken by his monotonous, insular existance, is standing in the park one day when he sees a trail of ants, leading up to a dead bird. So he sees these ants, cold, silent, disciplined, moving about, and taking the flesh off the bird back to the hive. And he sees himself in them, except that the ants have no inner voice. Unburdened by morality, they make no excuses for their acts. They are, in many ways, the ideal corporation.(The Watcher)

So the guy decides that there is no sense in continuing with this senseless desolation. He chooses to become an insect, and rid himself of the need for approval, or success, or even happiness. So he goes home, and gets in the bath, and makes his final peace, and says goodbye to a world where he never really belonged, imagining he is transforming into a gigantic insect while he disfigures himself with a razor  blade (metamorphosis).

Once he senses that the transformation is complete, he takes to the streets, in the hope of finding a suitable host to lay his eggs in. He finds a drunken, homeless man who's passed out in an alley way, and decides to rape him and kill him, in an imagined act of self-procreation. (Imago).

Is he ever caught? Does it really happen? Is it all just a dream? Well, we're working on a short multimedia clip for this song, and I would hate to spoil the ending... But it does address the point that there are many many people who live very lonely miserable lives, and sometimes they just lose control. In that sense, I guess it's a bit similar in spirit to the David Fincher movie "Fight Club", where the main character invents an alter ego to help him in his plans.


When the sad end of the great under prog label MOONCHILD, SONUS  UMBRA will sign with other label? What are your plans for the future?

Well, I have been sending copies of the album to several labels. I am very interested in working with Musea, and Vitaly Menshikov of Progressor has been of invaluable assistance in this respect. Another possibility is Record Heaven, which is a very cool Swedish label. Johannes Lindstrom is my contact there, and they run a very cool organization, but their focus is more toward a 70's Hard Rock revival I think. They have many exciting things going on, so we'll see.

As far as the band itself is concerned, the end of Moonchild came at a very bad time for us. There were plans to go on a North East tour of the USA sometime in November, playing small clubs with E-Motive and Crucible, but needless to say, without the label's support the plans had to be abandoned. That bad luck aside, the four of us will probably begin recording a new album in the fall of 2001. A lot of the material has been written already, and I'm very eager to show the guys the demos, and get to
work on them. Andres has also been writing music for the first time, and I think it is very important to have him contribute. The two of us work very well together, and I am interested to see where the new music goes. We will also be re-recording our demo release, "Laughter in the dark", to give it proper production, so with any luck maybe both albums will come out together sometime in the winter. Let's hope for the best.

Musics like DEMONS and Erich Zann are very beautiful and complex.  Talk with us about the creation of these epic prog pieces.

Well, thank you for the kind words. Demons is a shorter tune which was written entirely on a nylon string acoustic guitar. We used to open our shows as Radio Silence with it, and it typically got a good response. But the whole song really sort of wrote itself. i woke up one day with the verse in my head, and I picked up the guitar. By lunchtime, it was done, including the lead structures and the lyrics.

Erich Zann was inspired by reading H.P. Lovecraft. One of the things I love about Lovecraft is that he never really tells you excactly what his monsters look like. Instead, he describes how people react to seeing them. In that sense, I tried to write a piece that reflected the mood I felt when I was reading his stories, rather than trying to recreate what I thought the music of Erich Zann really sounded like. I used the  elements described in the story (like the hungarian harmonic minor scales), but just tried to re-create the mood I felt. Tapabrata Pal was essential, as I had always envisioned the piece with eastern percussion as
a lead instrument, and his playing on that is really incredible, I think. We wouldn't have been able to record it without him, so much credit is due to him for that piece.


How are the fans' reception for the new album?

It has been really amazing. It has been small scale, even by prog standards, because we have been self-promoting entirely, and having the experience and support of a label is crucial, but so far, everyone has been extremely positive on the album. There are a number of reviews  online, and things are moving along. It's always great to see that the music we do has some value to other people besides ourselves, and I am very grateful for all the support.


Talk to us about the project to release a tribute to BRIAN HIRSCH,  the great prog musician and MOONCHILD label director, who died recently.


Brian was a very complicated person. I think one of his best attributes was his honesty, and the good will he had to everyone signed to the label. His first concern was always to provide support, while giving the musicians the chance to be true to their music. Being a great keyboardist himself, he was a very good listener, and was willing not to interfere in the creative process. All of us will certainly miss him, especially when we begin to work with other people, who have different styles of running the business end of things. It's a real loss for the prog community, because Brian Hirsch was one of the few people willing to
really commit to promoting this sort of music, in a marketplace which is very antagonistic, and at no small personal cost. Most of us prog musicians lose money doing this, but we do it anyway. It's who and what we are, and I wanted to make a statement about this to the prog community. I wanted people in the prog community to know that one of the few who championed our cause had recently decided to end his own life.

I also thought it would be a nice gesture to his mother if we could get together the rest of the bands on the label, and if they had any unreleased tracks or material, we could do a compilation CD, in his honor. A farewell to him. Hopefully magazines like PROGRESSION would be willing to let us advertise this project cheaply, and once all manufacture and publicity costs were covered, whatever remained could be sent to his mother. Not because I know she needs it, and certainly given the usual
prog sales figures, it wasn't going to be a large sum anyway. But the initiative, i think, is what counts, and I am willing to do most of the work. I am still waiting to hear back from some of the bands, so if you're reading Krepuskulum, send me an email, and let's make this happen! Maybe I could advertise in MP3? upload the tracks, and have people send a voluntary donation to the Hisch fund. We already have a killer artist for  the CD booklet (Kudos to our friend Edgar!), so please get in touch folks!

Contacts:  nasser@wam.umd.edu