Out of Place

Cool

Sonic Pulsar are a Progressive rock band from Portugal. It began as a one man project, in the vein of ayreon, but now SP are a full band.

I also have many side projects, such as the upcoming "Creation".

I send you a recent bio published by a friend at another forum, but you may also visit our website (sonicpulsar.com) or our fan club (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/sonic_pulsar/)

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taken from: http://melosprogbazaar.com/viewtopic.php?t=1269

Sonic Pulsar:

Musicians/Biography

Sonic Pulsar started in 2000 with Hugo Flores and Carlos Mateus.
Hugo and Carlos met in school when they they were both living in Brussels, Belgium. They started playing the guitar together and by that time Hugo was already writing songs. Between 1996 and 2000, Hugo wrote some songs and finished 3 CDs, of which the last one, "Atlantis", was published by Fossil Records. Carlos contributed to this album with some lyrics. In January 2001, Hugo and Carlos decided that they wanted to work together as a band, whilst not giving up Hugo's solo career. They started writing in February and finished this CD in December.
Their mix of genres comes out very naturally and it is a combination of their musical influences. Nuno Ferreira joined the project, and played the bass section in “Out of Place”. Nuno is also a great guitar player, however he wanted to expand his knowledge, and began playing the bass and having regular jazz lessons.
By now, the band is growing, and we have Hugo Flores on vocals and guitars, Nuno Silva on bass guitars and cello (for Hugo Flores’ side project “Creation”), Carlos Bateras on drums, Carlos Mateus on guitars, and we’re expecting 2 more musicians for keyboards and samplers and additional guitars.

Some extracts of press reviews:

"... The progger can put his ears with confidence here...The talent is here for anyone to take notice." - Nuno Lourenço from Prognosis

“…Hugo is a serious guitarist, unique in every way. From Portugal, which create no language barrier since his instruments doing all of his talking for him, he can be enjoyed by all, and will be.….” - Bill Bruedigam at www.Thirdroad.com

“A must for any good Progressive collection.” – www.proglands.com

“The music presented on "Playing the Universe" is definitely original.” – www.progressor.net



Albums:

. Atlantis (1st Hugo Flores' solo album) - produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by HFP
. Playing the Universe - produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by HFP.
. Out of Place - produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by HFP and Mellow Records
. “Project Creation – Floating World” - to be released (2005)
. Hugo Flores' second album “Dimensions” - to be released (2006)

Hugo Flores - "Atlantis"


Sonic Pulsar - “Playing the Universe”


Impressive rock with beautiful ambient textures. Often compared to Dream Theater, Rush, Ayreon, with some of Vangelis ambient textures. "...The talent is here for anyone to take notice" - review at Proggnosis.com

"Playing The Universe", by Sonic Pulsar, features 72 minutes of fantastic music. The album title speaks for itself, space and infinity, the stars, the people..."

Rock/Metal and beautiful ambient textures mixed together to create a unique sound.

Group members for Playing the Universe:

. Hugo Flores - Vocals, lead guitars, bass guitars, Synthesizers, piano, drum samples
. Carlos Mateus - Acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers

Review by Nuno Lourenço from PROGNOSIS: http://www.proggnosis.com/

"If Hugo Flores had already caught my attention with his Atlantis album, this new project Sonic Pulsar has really fully satisfy me. The vocals are better and tremendously consistent with the music, showing the natural evolution of this young but fantastic musician.

The songs are also constructed with more depth and a true progressive understanding making me wonder what Sonic Pulsar will achieve next, if they keep evolving like this!

The album opens with powerful and hard-edged guitar riffing and soloing. But Radio Silent does not stick in those grungy sounds. As the music unfolds it grows into something innovating and mutating. The true progressive sensibility of Hugo Flores is well demonstrated here. Though in its heavier suit.

Dreamscape changes the play set, as it starts with a calm ambience that may remind you of Bjorn Lynne's The Gods Awaken or even, in another angle, Scott Mosher. This is a very tight and secure song, with very competent programming in what concerns the drum machine and exquisite keyboard playing. The guitar solo is aggressive but molded inside this ambient capsule, demonstrating the strange yet effective duality of this talented musician.

Dead Flowers further explores the aforementioned duality, as the vocals and the guitar riffing are generators of a heavy structure, but the song does not sound metallic. I wouldn’t call it prog metal; it's more like hard prog with a very acute personal view of the combination between melodic and ethereal keyboards with edgy distorted guitars.

Wasted is a sort of a ballad, Hugo Flore's way. It is not a mellow track for it mixes (again) some harder parts, but it slides quite easily. Again, the guitar soloing is awesome. The 8 minutes that the song lasts are a showdown in changing rhythms and music direction.

The band's name song is guitar oriented but in a melodic way. Its an instrumental track where Hugo explores his guitar abilities to the extreme. It sounds reminiscent of Vai's or Satriani's kind of approach.

In I have this stone, Hugo returns to his Atlantis sound. The vocals are very emotional and the song is more alternative. The haunting keyboard work of Carlos Mateus is worthy of praising. Almost unnoticed but complementing with style the final result.

In slow motion turns another great page in this album. The cared mix between Space, New-Age and Neo-Prog is great. The calmness is contagious and the way the instruments enter the play can really surprise you. This is one of the best songs in the album. Detailed, aired and ear candy.

This is not a jam session has a light and quickly forgotten jazzy feeling to it when it starts but it's really all about the guitar virtuosos of Hugo. The music starts with ambient sounds and evolves to prog-metal guitar soloing. This is pure power that seemed to be screaming to get out.

Perspective is the perfect demonstration of its title...the combination of different perspectives that populate this artists imagination. Even if the song is less strong than most the others in this album, it shows the different playgrounds where Sonic Pulsar expand their sound.

Made of Dreams is a quiet interlude in form of a ballad. The keyboards are, again, very well played and the vocals can really grab the emotion by its fingertips. Beautiful.

The album title song brings back to surface the inventive side. Again the interplay is excellent and the guitar work flawless. Positive waves circle all around this instrumental song for it is uprising. Excellent stuff really.

The last song closes the album in style. It occasionally reminds me of solo Bruce Dickinson pseudo-ballads (but only for split seconds). The song is harmonious and with a very distinctive melodic sense. Hugo's personal signature is very strong all over the album and he is really revealing himself to be a gifted guitar player and a enlighten progressive composer.

The progger can put his ears with confidence here and the progressive labels should pay attention to this project and the obvious potentiality of future works. The talent is here for anyone to take notice."
Nuno Lourenço 25.03.2002



Sonic Pulsar - “Out of Place”


A semi-conceptual album, with 70 minutes of pure progressive rock music. An outstanding release by Sonic Pulsar, re-defining its sound, with great power, melody and music art.

The album features a story told in 7 continuous songs, plus 4 stand-alone songs, that also blend nicely with the whole cd. The videoclip for the single “Out of Place” also reflects the story behind the song.

Rock/Metal and beautiful ambient textures mixed together to create a unique sound.

Group members for Out of Place

. Hugo Flores - Vocals, lead guitars, bass guitars (PTU), Synthesizers, piano, drum samples
. Carlos Mateus - Acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers (PTU)
. Nuno Ferreira - Bass Guitars Special guests: Fernando Flores on percussion and Josefa Maria on female vocals



Project Creation – Floating World


"CREATION" will be a concept cd, based on the development of life on a dead planet... For this album several musicians were invited and will participate in this amazing cd, to be release during 2005. Stay tuned for the story behind the concept! It will also be the chance to remake a few old songs that were never released before.

The story of the album (and track list) is:
1-Floating world

2-Living under a blue sky

3-The desert planet

4-The Civilisation

5-Mechanical lullabies

6-The Arrival

7-Warming up the machines

8-Artifficial satellite

9-Atmosphere

10-First species

11-The shining planet

12-Leaving marks - "Queops"

13-Returning home - foreseeing the future


Briefly, the album tells the story of a dying planet, whose advanced
civilization develops a big ship, world-like, capable of carrying a great
deal of the population. In the beginning, this ship leaves the planet, with
about 40% of the population, in search of a possible world to live in (the
trip lasts for about 5 years). Their goal is to give life to dead planets,
and also to search for a possible planet to live in. They find a "dead"
planet, create an artificial sun to rapidly develop life and good
conditions there. A pyramid is built to mark their creation. The pyramid is
also made, so that the beings growing up there might know they're not alone
and that their friends shall be back.

Then they return to their home planet, to "pick up" the rest of the
population. The so called “Mechanical lullabies” are semi organic beings (in
shape of a lullaby). Their goal is to search for suitable planets to live.