Sonnet LVIII

Crossing Oceans

Side A

Carcrash at 95mph

Oceans (And Blue Skies)

Hurricane Aurora

A Perfect Day

Seagull Drive

Side B

Treasure Heaven

Pristine

Granted

Un-hades

Weary

Released January 31, 2020

Gonzalo Alfonso (RIP) - vocals

Dale Marquez - guitars, keyboards, backing vocals

Ron Cajayon - guitars, backing vocals

Romel Cajayon - bass guitar

Elmer Macaraig - drums

Five-piece shoegaze pioneer band Sonnet LVIII is set to drop their remastered album ‘Crossing Oceans’ along with the colored vinyl on December 30, 2019 at the 70’s Bistro in Anonas, Quezon City. From ‘Owe No Homage Unto The Sun’, the band repackaged the album with the help of Jerome Velasco, releasing it as ‘Crossing Oceans’ on the event.

Inspired by Ride, Chapterhouse, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Adorable and My Bloody Valentine, childhood friends Dale, Ron and Elmer formed Sonnet LVIII in 1992. Ron's brother, Romel, and his friend Gonzalo joined a couple of months later. They hung out in Ron's living room and wrote songs incessantly, most of which were about their daydreams and reveries. Those living room sessions were turned a notch higher as the following years went by, where Sonnet LVIII were already playing in numerous clubs around Metro Manila including Club Dredd, Mayric's, Café Romeo and Music Museum and was an integral part of the famed Awakening and No Zone scenes.

 Come 1996, Sonnet LVIII finally went into the studio to record a handful of songs which they hoped would be released soon after. Unfortunately, this wasn't meant to be. However, that didn’t stop them from pursuing their passion and continued to trudge along. In 2000, the band decided to singlehandedly release a 200-copy, sticker-labeled, self-produced four-song CD-EP called "Treasure Heaven". The song and the EP, created quite a buzz in the Manila music scene. "Treasure Heaven" received decent radio airplay, the CD-EP was sold out, and the band won the Best Unsigned Artist from the NU107 Rock Awards. That same year, a live version of "A Perfect Day" was included in "Uno Documento Compilo" from Documento Records. 2003 saw the inclusion of the recorded version of "A Perfect Day" in the compilation Dashboard Teddy version 1.0 from Dorothy Records.

In the subsequent years, Sonnet LVIII played very few gigs here and there. The members lived further away from each other and have been busy with life. However, they haven't lost contact. Sometime in 2011, instead of having all their recordings languish in obscurity, the band announced the digital release of Owe No Homage Unto The Sun, a collection of all the songs they recorded in the mid-1990's. However, it felt like an imperfect ending.

In 2017, Gonzalo passed away unexpectedly. The remaining members, though deeply devastated with the loss, became closer than ever before. Thus the reunion/album launch for Crossing Oceans this 2019.

-rakista radio