Solaris

This is the 3rd album by ex-Solaris flautist / composer Attila Kollar with his Musical Witchcraft ensemble. The album presents an extended suite, which gives the album its title, and some other studio pieces, as well as a selection of live material, all brilliantly executed by these great Hungarian musicians, who mix Prog with early Classical / Medieval music…

The Hungarian formation Solaris was originally founded by some school friends in 1980. The band's name was derived from the title of book by SF writer Stanislaw Lem. After they made impression on a talent contest at The Budai Park for a massive crowd (mainly youth) the band was offered an opportunity to make a record. In '80 Solaris released their first single entitled "Rock Hullam" (actually this was a split single, Solaris got the B-side). The line-up in the early Eighties was Ferenc Raus (drums), Gábor Kisszabó (bass), Csaba Bogdán (guitars) and the remaining schoolfriends István Cziglán (guitars), Attila Kollár (flute) and Róbert Erdész (keyboards). They released the second single "Eden/Counterpoint" in '81. In '84 Solaris released their first album "The Martian Chronicles", it sold almost 40.000 copies. In those days progrock was popular in Hungary: Omega had crowds of 100.000 spectators!