Eclipse Sol-Air  Eclipse Sol-Air is a French band composed of seven musicians, which was founded in 2004 by Philippe Matic-Arnauld des Lions from France. The musical style of their own songs can be described as a mixture of styles, their individual sound and performance being provided by the violin, flute and piano in combination with French, English, German and Croatian lyrics. Eclipse Sol-Air (ESA for short) came into being in 2004. As a quintet the musicians brought out their first album in 2006 - "The Dark Side Guide". The first breakthrough for Philippe came after a number of changes to the line-up of the band, with the arrival of French singer and flautist Mireille Vicogne and the violinist Kathi Strobel, with whom he won first place in several competitions in 2009 and 2010. A highlight was being engaged by the European Space Agency, which has the same abbreviation as the band, namely “ESA”, to record a promotional video with the instrumental music from their “Reactor Song”. In early 2010 the band was discovered by industry executive Dr. Hans Helmut Itzel, who helped the band draw up a strategy for the future and took on the role of patron. Part of the strategy was to replace the previous drummer Andreas Hagen with percussion teacher David Bücherl, who teaches at a well-known percussion school in Europe, Drummers Focus in Munich, from which he had also qualified himself. Guitar player Fritz Hoffmeister, who qualified from the Muenchener Gitarreninstitut, and e-bass and double-bass player Benno Schultheiss, completed the line-up. Highlights were the concert at the Audi Max at Regensburg University together with the Regensburg University Symphony Orchestra, for which Philippe, at the time a music student at the university, and music director Graham Buckland wrote the orchestral score for the band’s songs; plus an appearance at a festival in Clermont-Ferrand 2010. It was with this line-up that their first well-known debut album “Bartoks Crisis” was recorded. Early in 2011 violinist Kathi left the band to dedicate herself to her violin studies, and violinist Agatha Sörgel (“Kitty Power”) joined the ensemble. Following the decision not to allow the acting talents of Philippe to go to waste behind the keyboard any longer but to make him frontman alongside frontwoman Mireille as the “front duo”, pianist Melina Mayer joined the band to take over the keyboard and piano role previously played by Philippe.