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Wojtek
Szadkowski, who wrote and co-wrote nearly all Collage's music and lyrics, created a new band called
Satellite in 2000. Satellite was created to fill in the emptiness
he felt without Collage. Wojtek needed to write new music because he could not escape from that all.
In the beginning,
Wojtek Szadkowski invited Darek Lisowski (keyboards) &
Krzysztof Narbut (guitars) to play music without any commitments or plans to record an album.
In a way, he wanted to go back to the beginning, to playing music spontaneously, music which could be played without any barriers, any music he wanted. It was like a new beginning for him. He wanted to start from nothing to feel freshness of creation, and uncertainty, which one can feel only in the beginning of writing new music. He didn't know how it was going to turn out and it was very fascinating for him. From the beginning, it was his solo
project and, when the music was starting to be, in
Wojtek's opinion, interesting, he decided to record an album and this is when he came up with a name to his band. He called it
Satellite.
Darek Lisowski
is very talented keyboard player, but he is not well known. He used to play in a rather unknown prog rock band, which
Wojtek knew.
Darek is an excellent and very sensitive keyboard player. He can feel
Wojtek's music very well and sometimes Wojtek uses
Darek's musical ideas as well. When they improvise,
Wojtek sometimes sings something to explain what he would like to achieve, and
Darek also tries to add something from himself. Therefore,
Wojtek looks through Darek's ideas and if he thinks that they fit well to his song and they inspire him,
he adds those ideas to his songs.
The fact that
Wojtek writes most of the music, adds also more possibilities for him to make drums and percussion even more interesting as they become a more melodic part of his music.
He will also try to have sometimes two drum sets playing at the same time on the album because
he likes this slight imperfection, a tiny shift in metrum
of the two kits playing along. Those fans who like
his drums from Collage's albums should not be
disappointed.
Wojtek knows cannot escape from himself. Understanding this made much easier for
him to work on a new album. Comparing Satellite's
music to Collage, it is much closer to the material from
"Moonshine" than from "Safe." Music is supposed to be extremely melodic, and as modern as possible. It was always
Wojtek's ambition to create a perfect connection between modern music and classic progressive rock. He does not want to resurrect progressive rock because it never died. He does not try break a closed door or make his music more modern whatever it takes. He just want to create melodic and at the same time
ambitious music.
Wojtek
wrote most of music and lyrics for the album, and when
Zbyszek Bieniak (Collage's vocalist, who
sung on a few songs from "Changes"
and many concerts between albums "Basnie"
and "Nine Songs of John Lennon,") joined Satellite as their vocalist, they recorded a demo
together with Darek Lisowski and Krzysztof
Narbut. Soon after that, Zbyszek was substituted with
Robert Amirian from Collage. In March 2002,
Krzysztof Narbut left the band, and Sarhan, guitars, and
Przemek Zawadzki (ex Collage,) bass guitar, joined the
band.
Przemek played on two Collage's albums,
"Basnie" (Fairy Tales)
and "Changes." Recently,
also
Mirek Gil (guitars,)
Krzysiek Palczewski (keyboards,) both from
Collage, and Piotr Żaczek (bass guitar) joined
Satellite.
First,
the album was going to be called "Night Flight"
but, in the end, Wojtek changed the title to "A
Street Between Sunset and Sunrise." It is about
understanding and seeing our world in two completely
different ways. Some people can feel and see more than
others. Maybe all of us could find that more sensitive
side of ourselves but, unfortunately, for different reasons, we do not have
enough time or we don't want to see anything else than our
maybe a little gray everyday life. This is what the album
is about. And finally, on a higher level, it is about
making a choice, any choice. Because making a choice is
like choosing one side of the street or the other one. And
once the choice is made, you are walking down the street
on one side, but you can always see, watch, observe the
other side.
Satellite's music is definitely prog rock but very melodic. Not pop songs, however. The album is going to contain
four long songs, over 10 min. each ("The
Evening Wind," "On the
Run," "Now," and the title track, "A
Street Between Sunrise and
Sunset,") as well as some shorter ones ("Midnight Snow,"
"No Disgrace,"
"Not Afraid," "Fight," and "Children.")
One will certainly recognize them as typical
Wojtek songs (e.g. "Wings in the Night" from
"Moonshine" or "Ja i ty" from
"Basnie.")
Satellite
started recording the album, "A Street Between
Sunrise and Sunset," on April
6, 2002. The album was released on March 10, 2003 by
Metal
Mind Productions.
The cover artwork, logo, and complete graphic design are made by
Mark Wilkinson, the very same artist, who painted some of the most famous
Marillion & Fish covers (e.g. "Script,"
"Misplaced Childhood," or "Vigil.") The artwork for the
Satellite's debut album, as well as its creation process, are now exclusively available on this website!
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