- What is the current status of the band Solaris? Does it still exists?

- Yes, the Solaris still exists and this year we started to compose a new studio album. In 1999 we released the album „Nostradamus – Book of prophecies” and we presented the songs of this album on concert on the N.E.A.R. Fest in June, 1999 in the USA, Bethlehem, PA.

- If the band continues, is there any plan to add musicians to put the activities into swing again?

- The members of the band : Bogdán Csaba – guitars, Erdész Róbert – keyboards, Gömör László – drums, Kisszabó Gábor – bass, Kollár Attila – flute, recorder, Pócs Tamás – bass. We lost the founder member Cziglán István – guitarist at the end of 1998, so after his death we didn’t want to change the basic line-up. On the future concerts we plan to invite some guest musicians and vocalists who were involved in the recordings of the Nostradamus album.

- Who is the musical leader of the Solaris?

- Erdész Róbert is the leader of the Solaris Band, but on the musical territory we have equality.

- How about the relations with the label and management/production?

- The leader and the „power-engine” of the Periferic Records is Böszörményi Gergely. He is really a good friend of the Solaris. In 1994 he started to work with us on the new CD release of the „Martian Chronicles” and he suggested to add new bonus tracks to the original LP version. Later he managed and organized the tours in 1995 on the Prog-Fest, in Los Angeles, in 1996 in Rio de Janeiro, in 1999 in Bethlehem and in 2001 in Mexico.

- Other than LP and CD, it is known that there are 2 singles in early period and a cassette version of the 2nd album. Is there any other official releases?

- Ther first SP from 1980 was the ’Solaris’ with the founder line-up (Erdész,Cziglán, Kollár, Seres, Tóth). The second SP released in 1981– with the ’Counterpoint’ (Erdész, Cziglán, Kisszabó, Kollár, Tóth). The first LP released in 1984 – the Martian Chronicles (Erdész, Cziglán, Gömör, Kollár, Pócs and co-working in some songs with Bogdán, Kisszabó and Rausch Ferenc-drums). The double LP released in 1990 and the extended double CD version of this material released in 1997. The ’Live in Los Angeles’ double CD released in 1996. The Prog-Fest ’95 double CD and video contains a short part of our cocert which published by the MUSEA in 1996. The ’Nostradamus – Book of Prophecies’ CD published in 1999 and the first part of the Archives CD appeared in 2000.

- Please explain about a compilation album from a label called Invisible ’Noise Reduction II’?

- This cassette compilation had some early unpublished songs and some radio-studio recordings and wasn’t officially released, so we had only some copies of this cassette.

- Have you already released the 2nd or later archive collections?

- These archives haven’t yet released but we plan that they will publish in the near future.

- The first volume of the archive collections was interesting as it showed Solaris in their early days, more hard edged, unpolished form. Can you please tell how did the band get formed, what was the influence and how it went to form their distinctive sound (which can be heard on ’Marsbéli Krónikák’)?

- The Solaris was founded by university students and we loved the progressive rock and the science fiction. We had a lot of rehearsals in a Medical University Club (1980-1984) and we tried to create our own musical language. After the concerts in the university clubs we changed a lot of compositions so it was a long time when the compositions reached their final formation.

- Please tell us about your musical background.

- I started to learn music when I was six years old. In the primary school I started to play on recorder, when I was eight years old. It was very important for me, because the great barock composers (Bach, Telemann, Händel) wrote a lot of compositions for recorder and I really loved these pieces and suites. Later, when I became fiveteen years old, I started to play on flute and I felt that I found my „own” instrument, which is closest to my heart from the classical and prog-rock musical aspect.

- Please tell us about your band career.

- We founded our first group with my friends in the secondary school in 1976. At that time our favourite groups were the ELP, the Camel, the Pink Floyd, so we did the „first steps” on this way. I played together with Naszádi Gábor, so our friendship is really old and deep, that’s the reason why we play together on the Musical Witchcraft albums. Two years later – at the end of our secondary school years – I started to play in an other band where I played together two other founder member of the Solaris (Cziglán István – guitar, Seres Attila – bass). Finally at the beginning of 1980 we founded the Solaris (Erdész, Cziglán, Kollár, Seres, Tóth Vilmos) and on an amateur pop-rock competition we gained the third place (among 137 different style amateur groups). This success was a real „starting” for the Solaris because the song „Solaris” was published on SP after the final competition.

- As been a flautist in a Progressive Rock Band, an inevitable comparison would be drawn between you and Ian Anderson or Thijs Van Leer. Can you please give your impression on these musicians, and what other flutist you’ve seen as inspiration?

- Ian Anderson and Thijs Van Leer are great flautists and their music inspired me really deep in my heart. I’d like to mention Herbie Mann who’s music – in other style – was an other important inspiration for me.

- Can we understand that your solo is actually an independent band?

- Not exactly, we just want to emphasize the importance of the team-work on the new Musical Witchcraft II CD. With this line-up we plan concerts in Hungary and abroad, too and the name of this group is „Musical Witchcraft Project”.

- Compared to Solaris, Musical Witchcraft albums draws more from mediavel/folk music. What led to take this direction?

- The acoustic instruments (ac. guitar, flute, violin, percussion) have major role in the second M.W. album, but we hope that the „heavier” prog-rock compositions are good counterpoints to the „atmospheric-instrumental” songs on the CD.

Takeyuki Miwa