Collage is the first Polish neo prog band who gained popularity outside homeland and became widely known to prog fans all over the world. It’s legend is getting even stronger as time passes by.
Collage was founded by Mirek Gil (guitar) and Wojtek Szadkowski (drums) in 1985 Warsaw, Poland. Both gentlemen were responsible for the majority of compositions of all band’s albums and Wojtek has written nearly all lyrics for Collage songs.
Collage’s first album entitled “Baśnie” (Fairytales) released in 1990 received enthusiastic reception from fans and critics. Baśnie, written in Polish, entered German, French, Dutch and Italian markets. Collage members were completely unaware of this fact till 1992, when Italian label Winyl Magic released the album in Italy a year later.
Back In Poland in annual pool of the major music magazine “Teraz Rock” Collage reached no. 7 in the category Best Polish Band of the year.
After a few line up changes, in 1993 Collage released “Nine Songs Of Jon Lennon” – a tribute album including covers of John Lennon songs. Till today Collage versions of those classic songs are considered one of the most innovative and creative covers ever recorded.
At that time the line up changes were over and the band could quietly work on another demo set in English. It was sent to many European labels and Collage finally signed to IS Music the Dutch label. The band moved to Heeze, near Eindhoven, Holland to record the next album.
In 1994 Collage released the album entitled “Moonshine”. It was a huge commercial and artistic success and till now it’s considered one of the best prog rock album in the world ever recorded. In Poland it was voted the 6th best rock album of all times and entered the top five of Polish records of 1995. And this was only the beginning.
In 1995 Roadruner Records released the album worldwide, including Japan and Korea.
After this both the band and the album became widely recognizable, winning nearly all prog rock pools and rankings worldwide.
Collage overnight became a headliner and started extensive touring Europe. The band soon gained the reputation of one of the best live prog rock acts In the world.
Soon, as a result of this success all other Collage albums were released outside Poland.
Collage also toured together with Fish twice (1994 + 1995). They performed In front of 50.000 fans in Poland together with Uriah Heep in Warsaw, Poland. They made countless gigs and radio and TV appearances to promote their albums.
In 1996 Collage released their next album entitled “Safe”.
More than quarter of a century after releasing of the last album, Collage returns with the long-awaited new album, entitled “Over and Out“.
The album is being released December 2nd, 2022, but the history of one dates back to 2013, when, after a long break in their activity, the musicians of the most famous group Collage decided to get the stage again.
Already before returning to the stage, the musicians of Collage and the vocalist Robert Amirian was replaced by Karol Wróblewski, and then Bartek Kossowicz (ex. Quidam). In 2015, the decision to leave the band was made by one of the group founder, Mirek Gil. Michał Kirmuć took his place. From that moment a new chapter in the history of Collage began, the result of which is the album “Over and Out”.
