MARSBÉLI KRÓNIKÁK (MARTIAN CHRONICLES)

After I had discovered the legendary 70s Classic Prog bands from the UK (especially Genesis, Yes, ELP and Pink Floyd are my favorites) since the mid-Seventies I started to discover 'non-UK' prog from Italy (PFM and Banco), Germany (Grobschnitt, Novalis, Eloy, Jane, Hoelderlin and Triumvirat), Spain (Triana) and France (Ange), I could purchase the LP's in Dutch record stores and a friend put the first two Triana albums on cassette for me. In the Nineties I stumbled upon the amazing progrock mailorder-service Syn-Phonic from Greg Walker, the many prog CD's I bought are still the foundation of my prog collection. A band that I discovered at Syn-Phonic is still one of my all-time favorite 'non-UK' prog bands, Solaris, from Hungary. This awesome formation was founded by a bunch of school friends in 1980, the name was derived from the title of book by SF writer Stanislaw Lem. In 1984 Solaris released their debut album entitled The Martian Chronicles, it sold almost 40.000 copies.

If you have your first listening session with this mainly instrumental album I am sure you will be blown away by the skills of the classically trained musicians, not only on the instruments but also as composers. The sound of Solaris is build upon The Holy Musical Trinity of flute, guitar and keyboards, with lots of dynamics, tension and musical ideas. The one moment mellow with tender classical flute, the other moment a sumptuous outburst with spectacular pitchbend driven Moog synthesizer flights. Or an electronic atmosphere with hints from Jean-Michel Jarre, like in the first part of the titletrack.

I highly recommend this masterpiece from Hungary, a bit forgotten during the years.