SOLSTICE

Surely here is a band who need no introduction whatsoever, as when it came to prog in the Eighties these were one of THE bands. I was really late to the party, not hearing 1984's 'Silent Dance' until it was reissued by Progressive Records in 1991, and immediately fell in love with both that and the next album, 'New Life'. Solstice built up a huge following in the live scene in the UK, but they never really had the stability and release schedule for them to establish themselves on a wider basis, and I am sure there are many of us who wish the breaks had gone their way as they always deserved to be much bigger. Their last album prior to this one was 2013's 'Prophecy', and apart from new singer Jess Holland, this features the same line-up of Andy Glass (guitar, vocals), Jenny Newman (violin), Pete Hemsley (drums), Robin Phillips (bass) and Steven McDaniel (keyboards, vocals). Solstice have always been a band who have used female lead vocals and violin, something which has always made them stand out from others in the scene, and on this album, they have moved at times into a folkier side.

Songs such as "Long Gone" are simply beautiful, with the concentration on Jess's beautiful vocals and Andy's acoustic guitar, with some delicate accordion-style keyboards. When Jenny's violin comes in over the top of the harmonies, it adds a touch of beauty which takes this to a whole new level. The album starts with one of its most overtly progressive tracks in "Shout", where the layered keyboards and violin fool us as we jump into something which is quite funky in some respects, allowing a groove to build right from the beginning. This has always been Andy's band, but he acts more as an arranger than a diva, only bringing himself forward when it is right for the music, yet he can more often be found in the background. This is the longest song on the album, at more than 10 minutes, yet it passes by incredibly quickly as the listener is drawn into some wonderfully melodic music.

Jess's vocals are pure and clear, Jenny has the wonderfully folky style one expects from someone who has developed her style in that sphere, adapting it to prog but never moving too far away from the roots, then Andy adds in his pieces when the time is right and together the trio provide the melody, with keyboards often in a support role, as are the rhythm section. However, one needs to pay close attention to Pete, Robert, and Steven, as they are often laying down complex lines and rhythms which the listener may not always pick up on.

The whole album is a delight, and it is something of a surprise to find they have revisited a track from their debut all those years ago. Back then Andy was accompanied by Sandy Leigh, Marc Elton, Mark Hawkins and Martin Wright, and while I must admit I am not always a fan of bands going back to music they had previously released, this has been given a totally fresh lease of life some 36 years on from when it was originally recorded. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the album and brought a smile to the face of old proggers like me. I see Solstice are touring heavily in the UK, and as I don't think they will ever make it down to Aotearoa, let's hope we get another album from them soon.

Sixth album from Solstice (Sia is Gaelic for six) with their brand new vocalist Jess Holland, who brings his pleasant, folk-tinged tone aboard. The general sound of the band is, however, more complex and textured than that, setting a prog & fusion sonic scenary where the guitars generally take the lead with excellent taste & strength, and the violin imprints a decisive stylistic signature, fortunately avoiding the common places & cliches already established for this instrument in prog by the likes of Darryl Way and David Cross, for example.

The most properly progressive material is on the opening (Shout) and closing (A New Day) track to be found:

The first is an epic featuring prog-fusion start and great violin touches in the vein of Jean-Luc Ponty, followed by sections mainly based on angular riffs and tasty solos by the electric guitarist. The harmony and rhythmic signature are anything but obvious, providing for a pleasant prog experience.

The last begins with nice acoustic guitar strumming and builds momentum on the addition of an orchestral arrangement and beautiful violin melody. The overall sound is classically symphonic, with tons of good taste in the final electric solo. Renaissance comes to mind.

The bonus (Cheyenne) is a reworking of an early classic taken from their first album, Silent Dance, and makes a fine addition to this great album.

Prophecy is a special album in the Solstice discography for two reasons. The first reason it is their first album to be recorded with the exact same lineup that produced their previous studio album. (Indeed, it's almost but not quite the same lineup as produced their previous two albums, since The Cropredy Set - a live-in-the-studio affair rather than a true live album - was recorded with an almost-identical group of musicians except Pete Hemsley wasn't on drums, Clive Bunker was.)

The other reason? Why, simply that this is the best album Solstice have produced to date. Set aside the three bonus tracks - remixes from Silent Dance by Steven Wilson - because whilst those are decent, at the same time there's only so much even Steven can do to rectify the issues arising from the somewhat unsympathetic production job which Silent Dance suffered from. Concentrate instead on the five-song cycle that constitutes this album, and drink in the gorgeous production job which really teases out the subtleties of the band's work. With stronger than usual compositions, the band may well have produced their magnum opus here.

Solstice returned to studio action in 2010 with a lineup almost identical to that which had recorded The Cropredy Set - the swansong of their 1990s incarnation - save that Clive Bunker had departed the drum kit and was replaced by Pete Hemsley, who'd previously held the drummer's spot on the New Life. Far from allowing their sound to stand still, Solstice update themselves here - we're still talking a mellow New Age school of neo-prog here (or perhaps a mellow neo-prog school of New Age music at times), but with greater and more effective use of samples and more modern keyboard options.

On top of that, the production this time really seems to support Solstice's sound better than ever, with the end result being a chill, relaxing album which certainly hits the spot if you are in the mood for a taste of summer festivals. Jenny Newman, whose violin work on The Cropredy Set was a real eye-opening aspect of that release, trades lead soloist duty with Andy Glass capably, Emma Brown continues to hold down the vocals as she has since Circles, and by and large taking a decade or so of time off seems to have done the band a world of good.

Though released in 2002, Solstice's The Cropredy Set actually hails from 1998. It's sort of a live-in-the-studio release: the band had performed at Fairport Convention's Cropredy festival, but it quickly became evident that the recordings they'd made of the performance were entirely unusable. Luckily, they were able to get themselves some studio time the next day to essentially recreate the set in the studio, with this album being the result of that.

In doing so, Solstice seem to have overcome the difficulties that their previous studio albums had suffered when it came to capturing their live sound; evidently past albums (Silent Dance especially) had been victims of the band and their producers just plain overthinking the matter, when a live-in-the-studio approach actually suits their style rather well.

The upshot is that the Cropredy Set might well be the best place to start exploring Solstice, especially in their 1990s incarnation; you get some picks from each of Silent Dance, New Life, and Circles, plus Awakening - the title track from Clive Bunker's solo album of the same name, which Solstice leader Andy Glass had provided guitar duties on - and the non-album track Ducks On the Pond, a traditional song turned into an Ozric Tentacles-do-dub reggae backing for new violinist Jenny Newman to really show off her stuff over.

Newman, indeed, is the exciting new edition to the lineup. On past Solstice albums Marc Elton's violin performances had been an important feature of the band's sound. Sadly, Elton had to bow out of the band after the completion of Circles, due to tinnitus rendering him incapable of performing live - a serious problem for a band so focused on live performance as Solstice. Newman is his incoming replacement and is an absolute delight on here, with her contributions establishing her as an important contributor to the band's sound and a worthy musical partner to Glass. (Between this and Solstice's next recordings, Andy Glass would largely focus on collaborations with Newman in their 3Sticks project.)

As far as the rest of the lineup goes, naturally band leader Andy Glass is here to provide guitar, and much of the Circles gang are still here too - Clive Bunker's on drums (hence the cut from his solo album), and Emma Brown remains on vocals. Steve McDaniel takes over the keyboard spot which Marc Elton had previously been handling in addition to his violin duties, whilst Robin Phillips joins on bass.

In what would be for Solstice a stunning level of stability, this is more or less the same lineup that would produce Spirit and Prophecy, the band's two studio albums of the 2010s, the only difference being Phil Hemsley (who had provided drums on New Life) rejoining the group to replace the outgoing Clive Bunker. The Cropredy Set, then, is not only a very solid collection of Solstice songs, but also a chance to hear (most of) the future lineup of the band gelling in the studio for the first time.

Solstice's third album finds the lineup tweaked again - Jethro Tull veteran Clive Bunker's joined on drums and Emma Brown is the new lead vocalist. The long-serving Marc Elton is still here on violin, and has some powerful moments, but sadly this would be his last recording with the group - due to tinnitus he had to quit live performance, and he gave up his spot in the band after this album was completed.

Circles scales back the role of keyboards compared to New Day, so that the vocals, Elton's violin, and most particularly Andy Glass' guitar work can take centre stage; in this way Glass is revealed as a guitarist after the fashion of, and at his best on a part with, Andy Latimer of Camel.

Aside from the keyboards the album is largely in the style that Solstice album past have made us accustomed to, with a standout departure being the title track. This commemorates the Battle of the Beanfield - the confrontation between New Age Travellers (repeatedly scapegoated by the Tory government of the era) and gung-ho police which erupted into appalling violence and put an end to the annual Stonehenge Free Festival in 1985.

No official inquiry into the matter ever occurred, but a police officer was found guilty of criminal Actual Bodily Harm and the police were successfully sued by some of the travellers involved. The overall effect of the event was to herald a crackdown on the New Age Traveller lifestyle which had become inextricably linked to the free festival scene - with the result that such festivals became a thing of the past. (Religious neopagan ceremonies would not be allowed at Stonehenge for over a decade, until finally in the authorities relented; even then, these gatherings have been of a strictly religious character and not included the sort of freewheeling musical festival that veterans fondly remember and mourn the loss of.)

This would have been a matter dear to Solstice's hearts; the free festival scene had been the band's spiritual home for much of their 1980s run, and the coincidence of the band splitting in the very same year as the Battle certainly feels oddly fitting. That the 1990s incarnation of the band would mark the occasion with a song is only fitting. It's perhaps one of Solstice's darker moments, interspersed with reconstructed sounds and news reports from the incident; in this context, the band's spiritually-oriented style might seem a bit incongruous, but personally I consider the way the music keeps going in their accustomed style and the vocals stridently insist on the right to assembly and religious worship and celebration is actually quite apt, striking a note of defiance in the face of difficult circumstances.

And if the story of Solstice is not one of triumph against difficult circumstances, I don't know what it is...

After their original 1980s incarnation broke up in 1985 (with a brief reunion in 1986), Solstice hibernated and re- emerged in the 1990s with this album. Returning from the 1980s version of the band are Marc Elton on violin and keyboards and, naturally, guitarist and band leader Andy Glass; Heidi Kemp very capably steps into the vocalist spot and the new rhythm section of Craig Sunderland and Pete Hemsley round out the revived group.

The biggest breath of fresh air, however, has to be the production. Silent Dance, the sole studio album from the 1980s version of the group, had always been hampered somewhat by a production job which didn't feel like a good fit for the band's music. The production here, whilst perhaps being at times more reminiscent of a New Age ambient album than a prog release, offers greater clarity to the overall benefit of the album. Elton's keyboards and Glass's guitar work, in particular, end up the star players here; Marillion's Steve Rothery has gone on the record as appreciating Andy Glass's style but feeling that Silent Dance didn't really capture him at his best, and here you can get a better appreciation of just what Steve saw in Andy's work.

The compositions here don't quite feel as powerful as those on Silent Dance, but the improved sonic clarity compensates for this nicely, and I'd say that this album is worth a listen for anyone who wants to dig a little deeper into Solstice's peace sign-waving, good-natured spiritual neo-prog.

Those who remember those days tell me that back when the new wave of British prog was in full swing in the early- to-mid 1980s, the top of the hierarchy was generally considered to be Marillion, Pallas, Twelfth Night, and Solstice. (Now-legendary names like IQ or Pendragon occupied a more secondary tier - perhaps headlining sometimes, but stepping back to take a support role when one of the bigger names was playing.)

Of these four, three would go on to sign major label contracts and make a shot for the big time. Marillion, out of all the pack, can be said to have truly made the most of this opportunity - most prog fans already know their history. Pallas and Twelfth Night's major label releases, on the other hand, sank like a stone - and the accepted wisdom is that this was due in part to attempts to make their sound more poppy and commercial. Certainly, Twelfth Night's self-titled album on Virgin is regarded as a bit simplistic compared to the dark depths of Fact and Fiction, whilst the original release of Pallas' The Sentinel was fumbled due to scrambling the intended running order of the Atlantis Suite, carving out great chunks of it and replacing them with poppier standalone tracks.

Solstice, on the other hand, stood apart from all this, being the only one of the Big Four of the era who never signed to a major label - and never intended to. This, perhaps, arises in part from their different ethos; while they were Marquee regulars and warmly embraced by the audience there, their hearts were really in the free festival scene of the era which also formed a home for the likes of Hawkwind and Ozric Tentacles.

The original lineup of Solstice would break up in 1985 and the band would go on hiatus for some years after that, and whilst by all reports this was entirely down to internal tensions within the group, at the same time there's a certain aptness to this: under assault from a government hostile to it, the free festival scene would find its activities increasingly curtailed as the 1980s ground on, with the 1985 "Battle of the Beanfield" at Stonehenge proving an ugly turning point.

We can be glad, then, that before they split the good-natured hippies of Solstice produced this lone album, in which band leader Andy Glass' subtle guitar, Marc Elton's soaring violin, and the Jon Anderson-meets-Annie Haslam vocals of Sandy Leigh combine to present an intriguingly unique sound in the early neo-prog scene. True to Leigh's singing style, I sense strong hints of Renaissance's folk-classical blend and Yes' spirituality in this music, with perhaps a little influence from other folk-prog bands like Jethro Tull (especially from the Songs From the Wood period).

Previous editions of Silent Dance have suffered a little from a production job which, to my ears, isn't quite suited to teasing out the prog complexities of the material, but the Definitive Edition (which includes a number of bonus tracks offering a real feast of 1980s Solstice) does a good job of cleaning things up. It's not a perfect album - Cheyenne, whilst it unquestionably has good intentions, seems awfully keen on taking up the cause of Native Americans without showing much evidence that the band had actually consulted with representatives of the community or really looked into the issue beyond typical New Age "let's cosplay as Native Americans and borrow their culture" stuff of the sort which was rife at the time, but despite these aspects it's still a very pretty number. And when the album really works there's a sense of majesty to it which is uniquely Solstice.

The first thing that stands out upon listening to this album is how strikingly different this debut album is from all other debut "neo prog" or "romanticized" progressive rock albums are from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though the crystalline voice of lead vocalist Sandy Leigh is not pitch-perfect nor as consistent as that of either Annie Haslam or Jon Anderson (the two artists to which she is most compared--I tend to think her voice more similar to that of Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan, Magenta's Christina Booth, or even Janis Joplin), the chunky YES-like bass, 12-string guitars, multiple guitar tracks, virtuosic violin, and bass pedals lead to a sophistication and maturity that is so much beyond other debut prog albums by the likes of IQ, Pallas, Quasar, Twelfth Night, Gizmo, and Saga.

1. "Peace" (6:30) female vocals! And layers of background singers! With bass-dripping, YES-like prog music. Nice! And an excellent lead guitarist. (Top notch solos!) Great melodies and harmonic structures. And violin. If the sound production were better this might be deserving of full marks! (9/10)

2. "Earthsong" (6:38) opens with very cool, very intimate acoustic guitar. Joined by keys and then laid-back drums and very nice fretless bass. Nice groove set up. The lyric is so prescient of today's environmental ills and their effects. Just such a nice floating experience! (9.5/10)

3. "Sunrise" (4:07) multiple female vocals with heavy Prog Folk accompaniment over an acoustic bluesy Led Zeppelin chord structure. Great HUGH MARSH (Bruce Cockburn)-like electric violin solo. Another song that might be rated higher if the sound engineering/production had been better. (9/10)

4. "Return of Spring" (4:53) violin and acoustic guitars launch full on with bass and drums in support. The violin work on this one is stunning, given the lead for most of the song with intermittent breaks for acoustic guitars and multi-voice "la-la-las." (9/10)

5. "Cheyenne" (5:59) opens with an awesome multi-voiced vocals with spacey acoustic guitars sounding like John Martyn's echoplex guitar. Great sound with amazing vocal arrangements. Very spacious throughout. (9/10)

6. "Brave New World" (8:46) a RUSH-y opening before folk vocals with keys lead to a sound that could have come straight off of MAGENTA's Seven album with its YES-RENAISSANCE hybridization. Awesome song! (19/20)

7. "Find Yourself" (6:03) a simple pop-like song sounding very much like Nicolette Larson's "Lotta Love." Pretty with inspiring lyrics. (8.5/10)

8. "Whyte Lady" (5:46) (8.5/10)

Total Time: 48:42

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of relatively early neo-progressive rock music and one of the finest sounding debut albums in the Neo Prog lexicon. Were it not for the poor production many of the songs on this album might even have earned higher ratings.

Neo-prog of the 80s is often considered the key musical movement that successfully resuscitated progressive rock and put it back onto the greater public's radar. While bands such as Twelfth Night, Marillion, Pallas and Pendragon seem to get the lion's share of credit for this revival, there were in fact dozens of bands that participated in this progressive reboot and one such band was the Buckinghamshire, England based SOLSTICE that was formed in 1980 by guitarist Andy Glass (who still happens to be a member of the band). Despite the band being corralled into the overarching neo-prog scene, SOLSTICE was quite different than the typical synthesizer based bands that took their primary inspiration from 70s Genesis. This band while loosely fitting into the scene was in fact more of a progressive folk act with luscious acoustic guitars, a vivacious violin and the angelic vocals of Sandy Leigh who was unbelievably the perfect female version of Yes' Jon Anderson.

Despite an early start in the prog revival world, SOLSTICE actually had a hard time of it in the beginning. While the band had already become seasoned veterans on the live gig circuit having played many clubs and the university scenes, the band took many years to find their debut album SILENT DANCE on the market which ended up costing more money than expected and taking over five months longer than they wanted. Nevertheless, the band crafted one of the more unique albums that got lumped into the greater neo-prog world of the 80s. Unlike the greater majority of neo-prog bands that took the Genesis infused approach and added glossy layers of keyboard parts, SOLSTICE had a sound all their own that was part folk and part rock that incorporated healthy doses of ambient and even ethnic world music.

Andy Glass' guitar playing was unlike any other as he eschewed the clear lineage of Steve Hackett and added a more funk laden rock approach that even incorporated jazzy touches to the mix although this is neo-prog and Gensesis and Hackett do come into play at various points on SILENT DANCE. Also unique to the sound was the exquisite violin playing of Marc Elton which added a completely new dimension to the mix and nowhere is this so deftly utilized as in the beautiful instrumental "Return Of Spring." The most interesting aspect of SOLSTICE's music has to be the divine vocal ability of Sandy Leigh whose unique soprano vocal phrasing sounds quite like no other. Renaissance comparisons are inevitable as she does nail certain aspects of Annie Haslam's style but overall she is more like Jon Anderson of Yes than any female contemporary. The music has an eerie similarity to Yes at times as well but only in the most evasive ways.

SOLSTICE had a short lifespan the first time around. While they would form in 1980, they wouldn't release their debut album until 1984 and then they would break up soon thereafter. The band would reconvene nearly ten years later and relaunch their career beginning with 1993's "New Life" but Sandy Leigh would not rejoin the cast which leaves the one album from their 80s run quite unique even in the band's lengthy multi-decade career. SILENT DANCE is really a hard album to define because it tackles so many styles. At times it comes off as a sophisticated progressive folk as on "Earthsong" as it eschews any neo-prog labels, other moments find it totally fits the neo-prog ticket such as on "Brave New World" that initiates the Hackett inspired "Wind & Wuthering" attack complete with the wailing 80s synthesizer stabs.

Equalling the diversity of the music are Sandy Leigh's vocals as she could belt out the highest pitched squeals without missing a beat as well as hover in mid-range mellowness. She sounds like many different vocalists strewn about SILENT DANCE and a tragedy for the band that she didn't rejoin in the second coming. Overall SILENT DANCE is an interesting specimen of unpeggable progressive rock from the mid-80s that displayed a unique approach that sorta skirted all easy categorization, just the kind of prog i can really sink my teeth into. For some it seems that the synthesizer parts keep this one dated but this WAS the 80s and despite those infrequent period pieces especially on "Peace" and "Brave New World," this album sounds out of step with the general consensus of neo-prog led prog revival.