After Luna Sea went on break in 1997, Sugizo started his own solo career and opened the independent label "Cross" to produce other artists, as well as releasing his own records. He points out that the opening of his record label was one of his very important projects at the time, but not anymore. On July 9, his debut single "Lucifer" was released and reached number 8 on the Oricon singles chart. It was followed by his first solo tour "Abstract Day" which lasted until the final performance in August at Akasaka Blitz, where he was joined by DJ Krush, Masami Tsuchiya and members of Japan. Then on September 10 he released his second single, "A Prayer", which reached number 7 on the charts. On November 19, his first solo album Truth? was released, and reached number 12 on the album charts. It was met with mixed reviews, largely because of the unexpected musical style which mixed different genres with electronica beats. A variety of artists participated in the album, from Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mick Karn, to Lou Rhodes and Valerie Etienne. Towards the end of the year, remix editions of his two maxi singles and album were released. As Luna Sea resumed activities, until the bands disbandement, Sugizo collaborated in the studio with actress Miki Nakatani, and singers Miu Sakamoto and Vivian Hsu among others. On August 11, 1999 a compilation album titled "Grand Cross 1999", which was sponsored by Sugizo's record label "Cross", was released, featuring many musicians with whom he had worked with before and many for the first time. In 2001, he participated in Ryuichi Sakamoto's N.M.L. ("No More Landmines"), a campaign to promote awareness of the problems of land mines and promote a ban on them, and helped in the making of the album Zero Landmine. He starred in Ken Nikai's movie Soundtrack and composed the music for the film. On November 14, a compilation album inspired by the film, titled Parallel Side of Soundtrack was released, and the following year he released the single "Rest in Peace & Fly Away" featuring Bice on vocals. That same year he produced the music for, as well danced in, Suichoku no Yume, a production by the popular contemporary dance company H. Art Chaos. Around late 2001 he formed the solo project Sugizo & the Spank Your Juice, with whom he toured with until 2004 and released three singles; "Super Love", "Dear Life" and "No More Machineguns Play the Guitar", which entered top 50 on the charts. His acting career also continued in 2002, when he starred in Isao Yukisada's film Rock'n'roll Mishin, and the television series RedIaum, directed by Ken Nikai. In 2003, following the release of "No More Machineguns Play the Guitar", Sugizo released his second album C:Lear. It peaked at the number 56 on the album charts. In March 2004, Sugizo formed the rock band the Flare with vocalist Yuna Katsuki. He also created a new record label called "Embryo", which received major distribution from Universal Music Group for the music of The Flare. They performed at Earth Day in Tokyo, Japan's largest event devoted to environmental and peaceful causes. The band would last until 2006, releasing four singles and one album. In May 2005, Sugizo organized the event "Neo Ascension Groove", with psychedelic jam session act Shag. In the band he plays guitar, violin and percussion, while the music is avant-garde with concentration on rhythm. In April 2006, collaborated with trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and celebrated Earth Day by participating in three shows held on April 9, 22 and 23 at the Yoyogi Koen in Tokyo. He later had his first performance with Juno Reactor at the Tokyo Techno Festival, after starting talks with the band in 2005 about a possible collaboration. In 2007, Sugizo participated in the project Stop Rokkasho run by the Japanese NGO Boomerang Net and headed up by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The project was created to bring attention to the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Aomori Prefecture. In April, he played at the Nagisa Music Festival with Shag. On June 29 at the 2007 Anime Expo convention in Long Beach, California was the debut, and only, performance of S.K.I.N, a supergroup consisting of Sugizo, Yoshiki, Gackt and Miyavi. In July, Juno Reactor performed as the White Stage's main act on the final day of the Fuji Rock Festival. On December 5, he released the remix album Spirituarise, in which artists from both Japan and overseas remixed his original tracks. On December 24, 2007, Luna Sea reunited for a one-night only concert at the Tokyo Dome. On March 28 and 29, 2008, Sugizo played at X Japan's two reunion concerts as a stand-in along Wes Borland and Richard Fortus for the deceased hide. In April, he took part in Juno Reactor's European tour. On May 2, he reunited with Luna Sea again at the "hide memorial summit", a two-day concert in memory of hide, at the Ajinomoto Stadium. On July 23, Sugizo released a greatest hits compilation album titled Cosmoscape. The album shows off his various types of music genres, such as rock, trance, jazz, classic, bossa nova, among others, and spans his ten years of solo work. During the year, Sugizo wrote a song titled "Enola Gay", named after the Boeing B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He wrote the song to convey his feelings and thoughts toward the people who suffered from the aftermath of nuclear war, and to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As well, that the bomb never must be dropped again, and as his live supporting drummer Greg Ellis is American, singer Origa Russian, and him Japanese, that people from former enemy states can be friends. In September joined Juno Reactor on the USA leg of their tour. On December 19, at the 1,500-seat Shibuya-AX concert hall, he held the solo concert "Rise to Cosmic Dance" playing songs from Cosmoscape, and including the new song "Enola Gay". On December 31, Sugizo played with X Japan at their New Years countdown gig at Akasaka Blitz. On May 1, 2009, Sugizo officially joined X Japan as lead guitarist, violinist and backing vocalist. In December, Sugizo with Juno Reactor performed in the Netherlands, twice in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. Upon returning to Japan, he released two new digital singles, "Messiah" and "Tell Me Why You Hide the Truth?", via iTunes on December 16. They topped iTunes electronic music charts with first and second place. On December 24 and 25, he held the concert "Next Phase of Cosmic Dance" in Taipei, Taiwan. CANNOTANSWER

Answer this question "was it successful?" by extracting the answer from the text above.

received major distribution from Universal Music Group for the music of The Flare.