Heylel Announce Their Debut Album "Nebulae"
Date: Tuesday, May 27 @ 14:00:00 UTC
Topic: Album Release News


"Those who follow me see the real light, enjoy true happiness, cry true sadness and feel true love" -- Narciso Monteiro, founder and songwriter

[Heylel's] debut album is undoubtfully inspired by its creator's quest for enlightenment and meaning. Nebulae is a conceptual vision over life and death, seen in the form of a star's life-cycle. The record is presented with eleven tracks divided into four chapters, from birth to extinction, creating intense emotional passages through each life stage.

Nebulae delivers a strong and dark but yet hopeful atmospheric sound, sometimes almost resembling a movie soundtrack. It combines all their progressive rock influences, including a cover for King Crimson's "I Talk To The Wind" and ELP's "The Sage," with more contemporary alternative sounds, ranging from the exploding power of "The Prophet" and the ultra heavy guitars on "Watcher Of The Light," to smooth and peaceful sounds like "Deeper" or "Wings Of Eternity," with this last one adding a baroque feel.

"A pure masterpiece" - Carlitos Lapis Voador, host for Microondas in Manobras Radio and die hard prog rock fan, upon reviewing "I Talk To The Wind," 2013.

Heylel enjoy creative freedom, meaning they avoid connections with any particular music style but rather direct their energy towards creating emotional connections and passing messages to the audience, regardless of the melodic approach they feel appropriate for each story. This happens mostly because of the diverse art background that each band member provides.

The author, Narciso Monteiro, former student of Porto's Jazz School, was also guitar player and co-founder of The Gama GT Blues Project, a Portuguese originals only blues band with two released records. In Nebulae he recorded guitars, bass and keyboards. He is recently also working in other contemporary art projects, like sound tracking Hans Richter's Two Pence Magic, for the 2013 edition of Encontrarte Amares animation cinema and plastic arts meeting.

Ana Batista, the lead singer, has a strong classical and church choir instruction, providing the band with a soft angelical tone, turning every song into a balanced experience between power and smoothness.

Filipe Braga is in charge of the drums but his established and recognized career as a photographer also places him as the main image coordinator, in order to complete the audio experience with a visual component. His contribution with the pictures that relate with each song, which can be seen in the record booklet, provide a visual art complement to the band's "more than music" concept on this release.

Later on, Sérgio de Meneses, also from Porto's Jazz School and member of other projects in the Portuguese music scene, was invited as a live bass player, eventually becoming a full time member and recording backing vocals on "Watcher Of The Light."

"...amazing style and sharp, intelligent writing on these tracks ... really love the vocal and gentle, graceful guitar style for "sometimes"..beautifully intimate and honest!" - Mike White Presents, ReverbNation's #1 Global artist in House, 2013

Recording was mainly between Narciso Monteiro's home studio and Filipe Braga's larger music and photography studio, mostly for vocals and drums. To obtain a very custom sound and assuring all production details would entirely fulfill the author's vision, all recording, mixing and mastering were performed by Narciso Monteiro himself. In the author's opinion, this independence level provides the record with a strong original personality and deepens the emotional connection between creator and listeners, as every musical option is guaranteed to be just like the author intended.

Presented in a DVD Digipack, the packaging itself is also product of several artists contribution. Cover art was created by Mafalda Cruz, a creative artist specializing in theater, film and performance arts. Booklet pictures are also from Filipe Braga, taken specifically to provide each song with a visual perspective.

The release is supported with a music film for the single "The Prophet," also conceived and directed by Mafalda Cruz and available for online viewing.

The album will be released June 30, 2014.

[Listening to tracks on their website while I prep this for posting -- stunning vocals and, at least on on the KC cover, delicate instrumentation. Other tracks ("The Prophet" and "Wings Of Eternity") have a prog rock edge verging on prog metal. Good stuff -ed.]

[Source: Heylel]







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