The classic guitar player of the Hungarian group Solaris, István Cziglán, died a couple of years ago, leaving us some written music of which only his part was recorded. Recently, the rest of the members of the band and other collaborators decided to conclude the work to as a tribute to him. The result is "Alhambra kapui", which translates as "Seven gates of Alhambra", an album that we find more interesting for the conclusions we can extract from it than for the music itself. The players in the recording are István Cziglán (programming, guitars and synthesizers), and the guests Zsuzsa Ullmannn, Vincze Lilla, Csaba Bogdán, Róbert Erdész, László Gömör, Gábor Kisszabó, Attila Kollár, Tamás Pócs, Zsolt Vámos and István Tereh. I will not write a full list of the instruments all of them play, as they are written in Hungarian in the booklet, and I would not like to make a mistake.
The music of "Alhambra kapui", with a length of 64:43 minutes, is interesting because it offers a new perspective of the music of Solaris, which we could say is as if we enlarged a side of the sound of the band. The general style of the album presents influences of Jethro Tull, Focus, classical music and Hungarian folk, although we can also find ethnic, oriental and electronic music influences. It is a very different work to "Nostradamus". While "Musical witchcraft" guides us into the more Tull side of the music of Solaris, this album remits us to a less complex but more ;worldly; area, with a wider range of influences. The instrumentation is mainly based on synthesizers (too many?) and guitars, and is it enlarged with flutes and other more ;natural; instruments. The album opens up with the lengthy suite "Personal gravity" (17:11) that includes two leading voices, a feminine one similar to the singer of Cranberries and a masculine one in an Arab style, that evolve to intone a quite ethereal melody full of gasps. It is a dark and well arranged piece, with ethnic Arab and Hispanic influences. The rhythm is in general slow, evolving progressively, and having big interventions of the keyboards and guitars. Next, "Tango tango" (4:42) is a very electronic cut that remits us to the first album of Solaris and, in some moments, to Pink Floyd and the spacey Eloy. Not bad, but it could have been developed better. "Bangkok" (4:08) presents oriental influences with a techno base and devilish rhythms that would allow this song to be danced in clubs. It is not bad, but it is not what one can expect from a project close to Solaris. The change is abrupt in "Old lady with cat" (7:35), an autumnal mid-tempo dominated by the piano. Its conception is very classical and in some moments it reminds of certain passages of Bach. Maybe it should have been developed a bit more because at the end it is a little monotonous. "April" (6:21) is one of the jewels of an album that up to now is quite irregular. It presents influences from folk and medieval music, with a wide instrumentation that enlarges and develops the music. The vocal developments are of great level and the guitar works very well, with an evident influence from Oldfield. The following track, "Seven gates of Alhambra" (10:11) is very relaxed and nostalgic, with references to the south of Spain. The work of the synthesised strings is so good that almost we could say this is classic music, very colorful and elaborated. Another great moment of the album that ends with "Swan song" (3:32), a melodic piece plenty of details, with a leading guitar and some very symphonic keyboards that remind from certain moments of "Wish you were here" by the end of the song. The CD gives us three bonus tracks. The first one is "For beginners…" (3:15), an exercise of semi techno-dance keyboards that they could have spared, although I consider it more a joke or divertimento that anything else. The other two pieces are the radio edit-versions of "April" (3:33) and "Personal gravity" (3:46) that are not bad.
Concluding, we can say that "Alhambra kapui" is an irregular album that has great moments ("April", "Seven gates of Alhambra") and other really poor and forgettable ones ("Tango tango", "Bangkok"). It is worthwhile only for the first ones.

Jaume Pujol