There are a host of other musicians involved on Solar Flare, most of whom I am just being exposed to for the first time as I get aquainted with the music, each of these guests offer the perfect complimentary performances to Yaan-Zeks' ecclectic flavor of many musical formats, and never once do I get the impression that I am listening to a guitarists' cd, due to the overall band feel of the compostions. Yaan-Zek creates music that fits somewhere between the complexity of some of Frank Zappa's most band oriented music, and goes to other extreme, by infusing many ethnicnally diverse flavors, never one dimensionally, but pairing them together for some very unique sounds. It's as if he has found a way to take the very essence of bands like Zappa, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck/ Jan Hammer, Shakti, Eleventh House and much more and made a single mixture of all of them.

There is never a dull moment on this cd, in fact, the way each song seems to offer such a unique brand of fusion, you find yourself dissecting the sounds of instruments to hear who is doing what on their respective instruments. As stated, solid players all over this cd, making standout statements on every song. Getting to Yaan-Zeks guitar stylings, who just happens to be the so called featured artist here, well he plays as a chameleon through this menagerie of exotic music, his voice on the instrument is reminiscent of the best fusion players of days gone by, you will definitely hear echoes of John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Larry Coryell, Tim Crowther, Frank Zappa, and just a hint of Di Meola, he seems to have wrapped all these players around both his playing and composing.

Needless to say, I am fully impressed by this cd, and feel the need to hear more of his work, the most impressive aspect is that Yaan-Zek yields to his bandmates as equal voices to his musical vision, the songs are compositions, not jam sessions, yet the songs allow enough space to allow for showcasing the musicians' talents. So in a nutshell, that is what has made the most respected fusion efforts in history what they are, great writing, great playing equals great music.