After Luna Sea went on break in 1997, Sugizo started his own solo career and opened the independent label "Cross" to produce other artists and release 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.