Post Description

Moonlight biography
Polish act MOONLIGHT can trace it's history back to 1991, when a band then known as The Veil of Honesty was formed in Szczecin. Numerous line-up changes followed for this new band, and when a stable line-up eventually settled the name had been altered as well, and when Maja Konarska (vocal), Kasia Michalewicz (vocals), Andrzej Kutys (guitars), Arek Wlazlo (guitars), Daniel Potasz (keyboards), Szymon Goebel (bass) and Tomasz Kopczynski (drums) hit the studio to record their first demo in 1993, it was under the moniker Moonlight.

And while the band had settled for a musical expression at this point, Gothic Metal, the band as such failed to evolve and didn't manage to draw much attention to themselves either. A new series of line-up changes followed, and in 1996 a new line-up had settled. Konarska, Kutys and Potasz stayed on, now flanked by Pawel Gotlas (bass) and Tomek Wieczorek (drums). A new demo, Cisza Przed Burz was issued, the band attended and won a rock band contest, and were subsequently signed by Polish label Metal Mind Productions. In the fall of 1996 their debut album Kalpa Taru was issued, as well as a 5 track EP.

Following support tours for the likes of Pendragon and King Diamond, as well as performing at a progressive rock based and a metal-dominated festival, Moonlight's career started gaining momentum. The rock press in particular started taking notice of the band, who was nominated in a fair number of the traditional end of the year polls in 1996.

Still, even with some tangible success coming the band's line-up failed to stabilize, and in 1997 Wieczorek had to pull out of the band due to health issues. New man in was Maciek Kazmierski (drums), and this slightly revamped version of the band recorded and released their sophomore effort Meren Re in 1997. The band's label Metal Mind Productions didn't quite know how to deal with this dark, mysterious release though, and when promotional opportunities failed to arrive - first and foremost a lack of live concert opportunities, Moonlight felt they had to end their relationship with Metal Mind.

When the legal hassles were over and done with, they signed with Morbid Noizz Productions. And in 1999 they released the third full length effort by Moonlight, Inermis. The album got a positive vibe much prior to release, and many positive reviews in the press created a lot of interest in the band. A promotional video for the track Flos was made as well, and Moonlight's career once again seemed to gain momentum. Unfortunately Moonlight were once again hampered by lack of promotional opportunities. Their new label had failed to get the album out to the shops in time, so while there was much interest in the album it was unavailable to get hold of. Four months late the CD eventually was distributed, but much too late for the band to manage to utilize the positive vibe that had been going on. It turned out that their new label was struggling, and late in 1999 Morbid Noizz Productions folded.

Soon after they were approached by their former label Metal Mind, and when the initial skepticism by the band had been overcome Moonlight resigned with Metal Mind. Back with thir old label the band's career soon got going again, and when their fourt effort Floe was issued in 2000 it became a popular production, and this time Moonlight got good promotion possibilities as well. One year later Yaishi appeared. And while another line-up change had occured by then, Gotlas replaced by Michal Podciechowski (bass), it was the influence of producer Marcin Bors which was the most notable aspect of this album. He had started working with Moonlight on their fourth album Floe, and a direct result of this was that their songs gradually started developing towards a progressive rock inspired sound. This was even more profound on their sixt effort Candra from 2002, and while it didn't impact the band's popularity it did cause upsets internally in the band. This eventually lead to keyboard-plater Potasz being asked to leave the outfit.

In 2003 Metal Mind wanted to officially release their initial 1993 demo on CD, and the aforementioned happenings suddenly presented them with a major problem: It turned out that Potasz had managed to secure the rights for these recordings for himself, and he was unvilling to let Metal Mind reissue them. So Moonlight hit the studio again, and rerecorded all 10 tracks, which was subsequently released on CD the same year. Producer Marcin Bors became even more involved with the band during these recordings, and these sessions also featured their new keybord player Andrzej Markowski. Later in 2003, on April 11th to be precise, one of their concerts were recorded for a DVD release, later released by Metal Mind as Awaken Memories Live.

In the summer of 2004 Moonlight's seventh production Audio 136 appeared, and by this time they had finalized their transition into a progressive rock band. Not one following the classic traditions of that stylistic expression though, but rather following a more a contemporary inspired sound. Subtle dissonances, dampened disharmonic layers and a sophisticated compositional structure were the order of the day for the band now. But while their musical endeavours were artistically sound by now, their line-up still continued to destabilize. Just after the album release Markowski decided to leave, giving higher priority to other projects he was actibe in. A hectic search followed, and resulted in Kuba Maciejewski being offered the job as keyboards player for the band.

When Downwords appeared in 2005 Moonlight managed to surprise both buyers and critics though. Taking their journey into progressive rock one step further, this was an album featuring modern electronica, starkly contrasting stylistic expressions within individual compositions as well as throughout the album. Loved by many and loathed by some, it gave Moonlight a lot of attention - especially amongst followers of progressive rock.

When the band hit the studio again in 2006 yet another line-up change had taken place, as Kazmierksi decided to leave the band after 9 eventful years. Krzyztof Medrala (drums) was his replacement, and with him onboard their new album Integrated in the System of Guilt was recorded. Expanding upon the musical direction explored on their previous effort this production took the band even further away from their Goth and Progressive metal past and further into contemporary progressive rock inspired landscapes.

But while Moonlight at this point had established themselves as a strong, ongoing concern the internal workings of the band may have been less harmonic. For whatever reason news from Moonlight stopped up following the spring of 2007, and while no official statements have been released it seems that Moonlight are either on an extended hiatus or disbanded sometime after the first half of 2007.

http://the-wall-of-music.actieforum.com/

1993 - Moonlight (Demo)

1996 - Kalpa Taru

1996 - Kalpa Taru(EP)

1997 - Wiem (EP)

1997 - Meren Re

1999 - Inermis

2000 - Floe

2001 - Koncert w Trójce 1991-2001

2001 - Yaishi (english)

2002 - Candra (english)

2003 - Moonlight (Demo rereleased)

2004 - Audio 136

2005 - downWords (english)

2006 - integrated in The system of guilt (english)


een aantal albums waren er ook in het pools die heb ik weg gelaten.