NOSTRADAMUS BOOK OF PROPHECIES

After their acclaimed gig on the Progfest 1995, Solaris was very motivated to keep on making music, even to make a new album. Well, eventually they came up with that new CD in 1999 and I'm very delighted about it! The source of inspiration was the famous and controversial work from visionair Nostradamus. I have read a lot about Nostradamus and his works, it sounds very interesting but to me there is too much room for interpretation and many people use it as a kind of Bible!

But back to the music from Solaris, the CD starts with the long composition "Book of prophecies" (3 parts, 20 minutes), first a sound collage, then a wonderful build-up featuring a sampled choir, percussion, a modern keyboard sound, howling electric guitar and spectacular synthesizer runs. Of course the music from Solaris delivers those distinctive, Jethro Tull-like flute play, very tasteful blended with keyboards and guitars. Remarkable is the colouring of the climates with exotic sounds like the South-American pan-flute, the native North American and African chants and the Australian didgederoo. The tracks "The duel" (lots of propulsive organ waves), "The lion's empire" (powerful guitar-riffs) and "Wings of the phoenix" featuring saxophone) showcase the typical Solaris sound: strong and dynamic featuring many shifting moods (slow, bombastic, swinging), loaded with great soli on lots of instruments. The other songs sound more adventurous like the captivating "Ship of darkness": fat synthesizer flights, JT-like flute and percussion are the home-base for a blend with musical ideas like a choir, howling electric guitar and a break with bass guitar. The intricate composition "Wargames" contains a lot of tension between a sampled choir, floods of organ, flute and guitar, GREAT! The song "The moment of truth" is a very dreamy song, divided into two parts featuring sensitive electric guitar, saxophone and beautiful piano play. The bonustrack is an 'edit-version' (3,5 minutes) from "The book of prophecies". I own all the previous Solaris CD's and have to say that I'm stunned by the way Solaris has succeeded to sound as a band from 1999, so creative and exciting. This CD is dedicated to the memory of guitarplayer 'Czigi' who died very sadly in 1998. He would have been very proud on the result of this CD. GREAT PROGROCK FROM HUNGARY!!