You may also like: Solis Lacus

The mythical self-titled vinyl album by Solis Lacus from 1975 is the only one by the Brussels jazz rock band based around pianist Michel Herr. Now that it is back in its original sleeve, you too can find out why it came back on the radar of music fanatics and DJs.

Alongside Placebo, the jazz rock band of Marc Moulin, Solis Lacus was the main local fusion showcase in the mid-1970s. It had reached the European continent in the wake of the electronic experiments of American jazz innovators such as Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul and Freddie Hubbard. A small scene also developed in Brussels. However, it is not there that we meet Solis Lacus founder Michel Herr (73), but in rural Corbais, a hamlet in Walloon Brabant, where he went in search of peace and quiet back in 1992. “Here I can arrange and compose in peace,” something he continued to do once his health prevented him from performing on his piano.

Looking back at his first album as a bandleader provides some distraction from the other work, for the cello ensemble Ô-Celli or the Toots Thielemans tribute he will soon be setting up with drummer Bruno Castellucci. “I have never been very into the past. Revivals are not my thing. I have always preferred to look forward. I released a hundred other records after Solis Lacus. But any recognition for what you've done as a youngster is of course always nice.”

The album in question was re-releas­ed by a French label some ten years ago as a result of renewed interest in the pioneers of electric jazz, but now it is in the original sleeve from the very first release. Released by Selection Records, it was actually intended for professionals. “They released music that was specifically made for film and TV. The cover text is more a description of the atmosphere than of the music. It took a few months for a commercial release via EMI to follow.”

The band had deliberately chosen a Latin name (of a location on Mars) to leave room for the imagination. While we look at some black-and-white photographs of the recording sessions that took place in 1974 and 1975, Herr amusedly explains that there was no midi system back then and that you could not interconnect electric keyboards. “You had to stack them on top of each other and side-by-side if you wanted more than one sound.”

You can also hear that there was more than a year between the two recording sessions on the record. “By the end, we had become funkier. We had said goodbye to our first drummer, and Bruno and trumpeter Richard Rousselet were also in Placebo, which had a bit more of a soulful sound.” Radio and festival programmers took it to their hearts. “With both line-ups we performed at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp and on the radio there was a lot of openness for what we presented. Starting from music that was electronic and therefore very structured and yet having the opportunity to improvise: that was the strength of Solis Lacus. This also allowed our record to open doors and minds.”

SOLIS LACUS (A SPECIAL RADIO ~ TV RECORD – N° 15)
Released on Sdban Records