Tempus Fugit (5) – The Dawn After The Storm

"The dawn after the storm" is the third recording of a young band from Brasil. This is the first album with the new bass player André Luiz. "The official bootleg 1998" was a recording of the last show of former bass player Bernard. The band debuted in 1997 with the concept album "Tales from a long forgotten world". Their debut album had a warm welcome in Japan, Europe and the USA. For me it is my first introduction to their music.

Tempus Fugit current line-up is André Mello (keyboards, lead vocals, backing vocals), Henrique Simões (electric & acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocals), Ary Moura (drums and electronic percussion) and André Luis (bass guitar, acoustic guitar). The guests musicians are: Marco Aurêh (flute) and Fernando Sierpe (vocals).

The brasilian sympho/prog scene did bring us some great bands (ie. Sagrado Coracao Da Terra, Apocalypse), so I was very anxious to here the results of the second studio recording of this band.

"Daydream" (8:30): The CD opens with an up-tempo Marillion like synth solo and then develop into a beautiful ballad with very nice piano and keyboards. Then the tempo builds up again with melodic guitar and a lot of keyboards. Some guitar pieces reminds me of that other brazilian and already mentioned band Apocalypse. Nice opener of this CD with beautiful guitar and keyboards parts. The track fades into… "The Dawn After the Storm" (8:53), including "Awakening", "Walking Trough the Fields", "Beyond the Horizon" and "Homeward", … and continues with heavy weather sounds (rain, thunder & lightning) and a dark slow keyboard intro. But after a while the sphere of the piece lightens up and we here a beautiful keyboard theme. We then here a slow guitar solo with a great melody. Again there are some beautiful synths. The next phase of the piece is more up-tempo with organ and screaming electric guitar. Here we can here the rythm section on it's best. After that keyboards and a beautiful guitar solo with a lot of ion. The piece grows to one of the highlights of the album.

"Never" (6:07): We here the first vocals in this slow ballad. Andre Mello writes great melodies and they are played with a lot of ion. The piece slowly builds up and we can here some very nice guitar solos. Tempus Fugit sounds young, fresh and romantic. "Tocando Você" (6:54): After three André Mello compositions it's now Henrique Simões turn. The piece opens with a slow acoustic guitar intro. Later the acoustic guitar is tastefully combined with a mandolin. When the keyboard sounds returns Simões plays a very beautiful electric guitar melody. This is later combined with a synthesizer. In the end the acoustic guitar returns and it slowly ends on a bed of nice keyboard sounds. The piece sounds very brazilian to me.

"The Fortress" (5:18): The piano and synth intro reminds me of Yanni. After some up-tempo guitar work, we hear the beloved (vintage) mellotron sound with a slow synth solo (Arp pro-soloist?) There are a lot of tempo changes in this piece. We here again up-tempo guitar pieces and all kind of keyboards. If you like a lot of keyboards in your sympho, you must listen to this band! "Prelúdio de Sevilla" (2:07): This is a classical acoustic guitar piece and sounds very Spanish. This is not just an intermezzo but a very nice and tastfully guitar piece.

"The Sight" (4:45): I love this one. Right from the start we here beautiful keyboards, frettless bass and a ionate guitar solo. Alexandre Mello wrote the lyrics for this ballad with a beautiful vocal line. "A signal came from heaven" For me this piece is another highlight of the album. "O Dom de Voar" (6:38): The classical piano is combined with acoustic guitar, keystrings and the flute of Marco Aureh. Like Tocando Você this piece taste brazilian to me. "Discover" (7:52): In this last piece we here again the mandolin/acoustic guitar combination. This third vocal song has all the ingredients of the previous tracks. Beautiful tasty synths and percussion sounds and a moogsolo which reminds me of "The journey to the centre of the earth" album of Rick Wakeman. Also the Marillion like synth solo is here again. This piece is a worthy ending of "The dawn after the storm".

For me this introduction to the music of Tempus Fugit was a welcome surprise. I like the beautiful melodies and the ionate playing of the band. They are develloping a sound of their own. I can recommend this album to all keyboard- and melodic sympho lovers. I will start my search for the first studio album of the boys!

Douwe Fledderus - April 2000