Intravenous: This piece of music, which weaves in and out of a genius arpeggio played by Nigel Summers is a nod to ‘On The Run’ by Floyd.. Rather than sync Nigel’s guitar to the bpm of the sequencer, I decided instead to record Nigel’s guitar dry, and sync everything else to it precisely. Great idea in theory – not so great in practice. It took me an entire day to achieve, but the slight changes in tempo throughout the track give it a sense of urgency which I think is difficult to achieve with a static tempo. ‘Intravenous’ was written as a precursor to ‘Twisted Wing’, together they take the album into a tense and darker middle section.

Electric Love: I love uplifting trance music, but find that many tracks these days focus too much on the percussion at the expense of the melodic elements. Rather than adding percussive layers, I created movement and energy with lots of running analogue arpeggiated lines instead. The song is a love song really, it’s about considering how your actions affect others around you, be they lovers or friends. It’s a dreamy trance record. Bill McGruddy (the vocalist) and I spent a day freezing on the south coast of England to make the video in January 2010.

Twisted Wing: The opening line ‘You cannot fly, and every night you dream of scaling heights’ came to me whilst listening to a radio program about an actress in the 50′s now retired. She was describing herself as having ‘dusty wings’, and would relive her nights on stage in her dreams… it was incredibly moving. The lyric suggested a majestic orchestral progression to me set at an energetic pace. I wrote the lyrics with Julie Scott. When she hits those high notes I get goose bumps every time.

Slowmotion: Written with Finland’s finest Dj (and my good friend) Orkidea , ‘Slowmotion’ has undergone many incarnations, rearrangements and remixes. It didn’t make it onto Rain Stars Eternal, it just didn’t work with the rest of the music… but I knew it had a rightful place on Touchstone. The addition of the Édith Piaf sample and the editing gave the track the extra dimension it required for a place on the album. Even though it is much slower than ‘Twisted Wing’ it seems to lift the pace at that point in the record, most bizarre!

The Best Way To Make Your Dreams Come True Is To Wake Up: A very long title, for sure, but as one of my colleagues said “what better than poetry in a title itself”! The title is a direct reference to the French poet Paul Valéry, who coined the phrase. I had fun with some new vocal compression techniques when recording this track, so much so that I tweeted the geekiest tweet of my life, of which I am thoroughly ashamed. I only began to feel comfortable with my own singing voice around the time of ‘Late Summer Fields’. The response from my fans to that track was a real surprise, and it freed me in a sense, to sing the lyrics I was previously writing for other artists. The lyrics in ‘The Best Way’ were a product of my insomnia, when I’m working on music I struggle to sleep properly, in addition, when I recorded the vocal take for this, I had a terrible throat infection, but being the masochist that I am, I thought it would lend the performance a rough ‘edge’.

Zeitgeist: Orkidea and I both love Trance music from the early 90′s for it’s intelligent arrangements, the inclusion of many different parts and the weaving of different textures and elements throughout the tracks. Each time we write together, we assign different parts of a simple melodic progression to different instruments – it’s a ‘question and answer’ mentality. Zeitgeist is a pure club record, its relentless arrangement doesn’t let up for a moment. I fell in love with ‘Yellow Moon’ by Catbird when it appeared on the Solaris International show as a ‘Chillout Moment’ back in 2008, the ‘Fly with Me’ vocal sample was shoe-in for this track.

The Last Defeat (Part Two): As a teenager I loved the way that Genesis would split an epic track into two parts on an album, so I decided to go one step further and save ‘Part Two’ for the next album. It’s one of those little bits of detail which resonate with fans too. Lucia Holm of Sunscreem had long been a heroine of mine, I was delighted when I succeed at coaxing her into writing a vocal for the track. ‘Part One’ was, to my mind. a musical vision of a battlefield when all is quiet and peaceful, but Lucia interpreted it as making love for the first time, I was practically in tears when I heard the song. The Strings, Rhodes and Hammond added some drama to the song as it takes a diversion into the dubby middle section. I edited this down from a mammoth 13 minutes for the ‘Touchstone’ sequence.

There’s A Universe: Musically the combination of electronica and 60′s instrumentation is a pastiche of influences from many great British bands of the last 40 years. Billy and I both sing on this one, spookily we struggled to remember who had sung what when it came to the backing vocals, our voices seem to morph into one. I recorded 16 layers of harmonies for the ‘aah aah’ section, if you listen closely at one point you can hear the telephone ringing in the background. The song itself is an ode to universal love, grabbing it with both hands when it’s there, and savouring the memory when it has gone. After all, as the man said “It’s better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven’t done’.

It’s never too late to start participating in the contest. If you’ve got a large circle of electronic dance loving friends, you could be shooting up the Touchstone ranks within hours of starting! Kick off or check your progress right here.

In 2008 he produced Rain Stars Eternal, his rebirth 2.0 artist album and in 2009 he imagined and created Electronic Architecture – his IDMA-nominated concept compilation vision. Now, for a new decade, Solarstone returns with… Touchstone.

In ways big and small, conscious or otherwise, inspiration happens to everyone, everyday of their lives. Musicians are perhaps intrinsically even more open to it. Lines thick, thin, straight and curved are drawn to productions that span back over many decades… In his own production work, identifying these inspirations, down to their smallest fraction is something that Solarstone (composer, producer, singer & DJ Richard Mowatt) has long been captivated by.

Touchstone, his new artist album, brings these inspirations out of the cortex and into the light, ‘musically mapping’, for the first time, an artist that has at every turn sought to redefine the word trance. As with every album ever produced, influences are there to be picked up on by the listener. On Touchstone though they are first illuminated, clarified and examined by the artist himself. Richard goes on to explain: “To me musical inspiration comes in many forms. It can be artists that I’ve fallen in love with wholesale and still venerate to this day, or simply fragments of music that made a lasting impression at arbitrary points in my life. ‘Touchstone’ is a culmination of all those inspirations.”

Solarstone’s brand new artist album ‘Touchstone’ will be released on June 28th 2010 on Solaris Recordings. Its dedicated microsite has just gone live and will be there in the run up to the release and beyond to keep you up to date with all the info-bursts. Featured on it over the next few weeks will be some incredible on-location mini-documentaries that take you behind the musical creation of ‘Touchstone’. There will also be some great free music downloads (on the site already is an exclusive, unreleased, don’t-miss mix of the new Solarstone single ‘Electric Love’) and amazing competitions (more about which below!).

In a wholly new cutting-edge Solarstone want web users to participate in the album’s release! Solarstone have created a points = prizes feature on the website for registered users to help spread the word of ‘Touchstone’ around the worldwideweb.

As a user, you can help by embedding ‘Touchstone’ widgets on social networking pages, forums & websites. The widgets enable people visiting your page to listen to tracks from the album and then themselves get involved. You can recommend friends to join and every time your widget has a friend sign up or creates a sale, you automatically get points added to your account. And remember best of all: points are going to equal some pretty incredible Prizes!

…And more to follow from us very soon!

Incomplete/incorrect entries will not count. Winners will be notified by email and prizes will be shipped within 28 days. Competition closes 24/10/2009.

Now, a year after the release of ‘RainStarsEternal’, and following a meticulous remix A&Ring period, Solarstone is delighted to present… RSEMIX!

Whilst in the final stages of production on each of the tracks on the original album, Rich knew that there were many other directions they could potentially have gone… He also knew there would still be time for them to do so. Expanding RSE’s initial remit has been a highly judicious process; the selection of the final 11 remixes included on the CD (from those that were commissioned) was as Solarstone puts it “an incredibly difficult one – almost like completing a jigsaw puzzle!”

The original version of the album took the listener to some places previously unexplored by Solarstone. There’s never been a ‘rule book’ as such with his music. If such a thing existed though, on RSEMIX, you could consider it to have been roundly torn up and tossed out the window! The 80-ish overtones of ‘Breakaway’ have now been transported into a housey, Daft Punk-ian arena by Jaksaw, complete with a chopped, stuttered vocal-fest and irrepressible, funk-powered backing. Courtesy of Probspot ‘Slave’ has been re-rendered as a pacey expedition through broken beats, sunspot synths and BT-ish melodies while gig-fave ‘4ever’ has become a beat-less piano-tinged, autumnal lament. If you’ve ever had a little ‘moment’ listening to tracks like Mental Generation’s ‘Café del Mar’ or A Man Called Adam’s ‘Easter Song’, ‘4ever’ will now chill yer boots off (and pop them neatly at the bottom of the bed for you!).

For those needing to feel the pure-form floor-energy (and are maybe starting to wonder if you might have been forgotten) – fear not! Unsurprisingly Ferry Corsten had the run of RSE’s range to pick from. He selected ‘Late Summer Fields’ and has turned it into a ravenous beast – bristling with floor armour and setting up to cause uproar when its re-released next month. Bissen, Beetseekers and Pedro del Mar & DJ Cosmo have also been keeping the club end of things firmly within their sites whilst re-maping ‘The Last Defeat, ‘Dark Heart’ & ‘Lunar Rings’!

The closer Solar-watchers among you will no doubt spot that there is also a good degree of ‘Electronic Architecture’s alumni contributing to RSEMIX’s tracklist. Solar Energy, Bot Cyprian, Stan Void & Jox have all been hard at it, recalibrating (respectively) ‘Part of Me’, ‘RainStarsEternal’, ‘Spectrum’ and ‘Filoselle Skies’.

‘RainStarsEternal’s remix passage has been a prodigious one. If you’re reading above and heard forum-talk of a remix that’s not mentioned, don’t worry! RSEMIX will be completed by a download-only version that will take in reworks of tracks by Randy Boyer and Kristina Sky, Forerunners, Heatbeat, Tasadi, Nick Rowland, Jule Bricks and Monolythe.

So there you have it, all the tracks you fell in love with in 2008 are back, remixed, waxed polished and given a whole new look & listen… ready for the process to start again.

The CD of RSEMIX is out on the 24th of October, while the additional Download bundle follows two weeks later.

Through solarSwarm, Swarmers already meet, make new friends and talk about the one thing they all have in common: a love of electronic dance music! Amongst the Swarm members there are already wunderkind producers, razor-sharp designers, I.T. whizz-kids & promotional gurus. In essence a group of people who now have the collective skills and know-how to run a record label.
Now… that big step forward we were talking about!

As most any fan knows, inside the Solarstone camp there are several affiliated labels. One of those is Insatiable Records. That imprint has now been handed over lock, stock and barrel to the Swarm to run collectively as their own label and has been duly re-christened solarSwarm Recordings! Swarmers have already begun choosing the material to be signed and released through it. Through that great age-old, tried and tested process of ‘one man, one vote’, Swarmers are electing the tracks, the remixers and the mixes that are released, as well as the different imagery and artwork used for each track.

This is a fresh, innovative and wholly unique way to run a label, one that’s not been done anywhere else in the world. By the people, for that people, if you like! What we want most of all though is to give you something music industry based that you can enjoy running in the time that you have.

The password protected Swarm section of the Solarstone forum is the place where music and imagery are debated and voted upon, but in addition to this, we are currently redesigning the Swarm page of the Solarstone website which will give all Swarmers the ability to not only add tracks to a dedicated mp3 player, but also to post artwork submissions.

Existing Swarmers may wish to find and introduce new members to the Swarm to add to the whole creative input… It’s up to you, but what you ultimately have is the first social-network record label in existence. That in itself is an exciting thing indeed. With input from passionate individuals who are in it for the love of the music and want to talk, share, discuss, opine and then make things move!

TO JOIN THE SWARM: Just send an e-mail to solarSwarm@solarstone.co.uk stating briefly why you’d like to become a member. Once accepted you’ll receive your login and password and you’ll become a valuable part of this unique experience!

Steve originally carved The Thrillseekers reputation as much through remixing as his original productions. To date he has rewired tracks for headline artists including Armin, Tiësto, Ferry Corsten and Timo Maas. In 2000, he reshaped Sonique’s ‘It Feels So Good’ into a globe-spanning No.1 chart record and over the course of his career has been called upon to re-fire tracks for label luminaries including Positiva, Universal, Virgin, Xtravaganza and Ministry of Sound.

In news certain to delight fans who’ve long lamented the absence of the floor-fabled Thrillseekers remix, Steve is now making his return to that fore.

To kick things off he has just completed a huge, near-decade-spanning remix trilogy (or if you look at it another way, it might even be a ‘quadrology’!). It started with his renowned Club and Ambient reworks of ‘Saltwater’, continued with the much-loved ‘Autumn Tactics’ and now, almost ten years later, he’s just delivered his THIRD massive Chicane remix. Taken from Nick Bracegirdle’s forthcoming ‘Re-Work EP’, the original of ‘Poppiholla’ has been all that’s shaking on dancefloors of late. The Thrillseekers remix straps jet boot propulsion to this piano-led anthem and is set to rocket it through the’09 summer season!

To further cement this return of an Ibizan trance dream-team, Chicane will also be making an appearance on Steve’s forthcoming artist album!

Also just hitting the promo trail this month, he has reworked fellow quintessential trance act Solarstone’s newie ‘Part of Me’ (from the ‘RainStarsEternal’ album) – lending it a thriving, hypnotic deep-trance edge.

Last (and we can say with all assurance!) by no means least, he is also working on a currently very hush-hush/on-the-QT officially-sanctioned rework of an extremely well know alt-rock band’s recent single. More info on that the very second we get the green light from the powers that be!

Standing out in the overwhelming compilation field – really rising head and shoulders above the rest, in 2009 has required a herculean 6-month A&Ring mission. Matched by its super-immersive, multilevel mixing, that is exactly what Solarstone has achieved with ‘Electronic Architecture’.
Far from just a neat idiom, ‘Electronic Architecture’ is Rich’s closely-held musical & spinning philosophy. A desire to conceive, design and then build a musical experience that, in 2009, aspires to the groundbreaking heights of ‘Northern Exposure’, Global Underground’ and (hushed tones please) ‘Renaissance’… An album that engages the mind before blowing the brain, and all within the first listen. One though that also continually reveals new layers and enthrals through repeated spins.

Such is the expanse of debutante artists that the first look at ‘E.A.’s track listing you could be forgiven for a brain-freeze. Bear in mind, this is a wholehearted attempt to bring YOU NEW music! Bot Cyprian, David Horne, Filigrio, Jahawi, Jox, Cormac Murphy, Souls in Motion, & LTN (who won Trance.nu’s ‘Solarstone’s Next Big Thing’ Competition); these are the progressive, breaks and trance names of the future – acts that Richard has discovered after sifting through thousands of submitted ‘EA’ demos.

As your eyes adjust though, marginally more familiar names start to jump out… Katcha, Tarrentella, Saints + Sinners; underground classics, taken from the archives and rewired by remixers like Breakfast and Solarstone himself – solely for the purposes of the album. ‘E.A’ subscribes firmly to the journeyman compilation theory. Weaving with absolute fluidity between the subterranean layers of deep house & soft-tech, through breaks and progressive and then through onto the melodic plains of balearically-blooded trance from which Solarstone originally made his name.

Electronic ‘Art-itecture’: The Imagery Behind The Architecture.
Conceived as a cross-media release, both the ‘Electronic Architecture’ CD and tour elements are supported by stunning design visuals, which play an intrinsic part in the overall experience. Richard’s love of sleeve artwork has always run hot through LPs like ‘Exhibition’, ‘Destinations’ & ‘RainStarsEternal’. On ‘Electronic Architecture’ he has taken that element up multiple levels with a look that will be almost as much ‘Gallery’ as it is ‘Club’. ‘Electronic Architecture’ is Music & Art combined – the man himself goes on to explain:
“For me, the visual aspect of this project was crucial from the outset. To have such a rich new musical tapestry and not represent it with an equally beautiful visual package would have been a huge missed opportunity. This album represents exactly what I stand for as an artist, producer & DJ. The musical progression through progressive house, breaks, soft-tech and trance is the CD equivalent of a 3Hr Solarstone club set, and it’s committal to plastic has been long overdue. This is the music I love to listen to. It is inspirational in its inventiveness, musically ambitious and never formulaic or predictable. This is an album that I want your finger to pause upon whilst browsing dusty CD shelves in ten years time, for both its aesthetic and auditory qualities”

Electronic Architecture – The Tour.
Over the coming months Rich will embark on a tour that, through the power of its combined elements will deliver a unique, cross-creative experience. Audiences will prepare to see stunningly beautiful graphical superstructures built on video screens above their heads. Art constructed and deconstructed before their eyes – all sound-tracked by the music of E.A. That music is to all the important intents and purposes exclusive to Solarstone. Across the aforementioned span of styles it will form an entirely unique in-club soundscape for the tour nights that Richard plays at. Something only a handful of DJs in the world today can claim to.

Disc 1

Disc 2:

Electronic Architecture IS:
45% Progressive
35% Trance
10% Soft-tech
5% Breaks
5% House

100% Solarstone

Worldwide Release on 06/04/09

To be in with a chance of winning, please tell us the name of Solarstone’s 1999 Top 40 hit?

Solarstone – The Music:
Originally a 3 piece (with former members Sam Tierney & Andy Bury), Solarstone blazed a trail through the emergent days of the trance phenomenon, founding their name with the club hits like ‘Green Light’ (1995), ‘The Calling’ (1997) and ‘The Impressions EP’ (1998). As the first trance tsunami peaked in 1999 Solarstone left an indelible mark on the scene with the Top 40 hit ‘Seven Cities’. The track – one of the very first true Balearic Trance anthems – has been re-released 3 times and has sold in excess of 500,000 copies. Remixed in 2002 by Armin van Buuren, its instantly-recognizable sunset legacy sound can still be heard in tracks being released today.

Over the next 6 years Solarstone continued to feed the ever-hungry trance-masses with speaker-sensations like ‘Solarcoaster’ (2003), ‘Speak in Sympathy’ (2004), ‘Eastern Sea’ (2005), ‘Like A Waterfall’ (2006) & ‘The Calling’ (2007). In 2006 he released his first long-player, the compendium/greatest hits album, ‘AnthologyOne’ . That was followed up in May 2008 by ‘RainStarsEternal’ – an album summed up by DJMag as “a consummate all-rounder from the UK’s original trance master”. ‘R.S.E.’ has so far spawned four singles, the title track itself, ‘Spectrum’, ‘4ever’ & ‘Late Summer Fields’, the latter of which Rich produced, sung and wrote the lyrics for.

Solarstone – The DJ:
Solarstone behind a pair of CDJs is something that every EDM lover, planet-wide, should witness at least once in their clubbing careers! Rich brings together a clear and abiding love of melody with an intrinsic, perceptive aptitude for floor-shaking performances. Since learning to spin in the late Nineties, he’s played for the majority of the super-club brands (inc. Cream, Ministry of Sound, Gatecrasher, Slinky & Euphoria) and spun alongside the worlds best-known DJs many times over. Unlike many other spinners he also maintains a huge home-country following, playing almost as much to UK audiences as to ones abroad. Rich’s worldwide travels have also taken him to some of the biggest events and festivals across the globe, and also some of the most remote. Over the years these have included islands in the Philippines, bush parties in Australia and massive festivals in the heart of Brazil.

Solarstone – The Guises:
In order to showcase different musical perspectives & sounds, Rich has also recorded under a number of pseudonyms. In 2002 he initiated the 80’s-referencing Young Parisians outfit, scoring a big debut with lamenting ‘U Write the Rules’. The act then skyrocketed with one of the 2004’s defining trance/prog tracks ‘Jump the Next Train’. In 1999 he released the underground anthem ‘The Hymn’ by Skyscraper on 4D Recordings, latterly re-releasing it on his own Deepblue label. He also has recorded alongside Andy Bury as Liquid State for Perfecto & Space Kittens for Hooj Choons.

Solarstone – The Remixes:
Over the years Solarstone has always maintained a rigid balance between original production tracks and remix works. He has remixed for A-list names like Paul Oakenfold (‘Bullet in The Gun’), Ferry Corsten (on Moonman’s ‘Galaxia’) & BT’s ‘Calling Your Name’. He has also stepped outside the comfort zone to refashion tracks by legendary acts like The Human League & Sarah McLachlan.

Solaris International – The Solarstone Show:
Solaris International is Rich’s long-running and widely-syndicated radio show. Working on a fully fleshed-out 2 hour format of features, interviews, guest mixes and regular spots, it has developed over two years from a cult following into a weekly essential tune-in for large sections of the electronic dance community. Presented on alternate weeks with Robbie Nelson, Solaris International (pka Deepblue Radio) broadcasts across some 34 FM & Internet stations, including Ministry of Sound.com & the south coast’s Passion FM network to a listenership of over 8 million.

Solaris, insatiable & Deepblue Records – The Solarstone’s Labels:
Opening for business in August 1999, Rich co-owned, a&r’d and ran the Deepblue imprint and its 5 sub-labels. The launch-pad for a multitude of club hits (including ‘Like a Waterfall’, ‘Jump the Next Train’ & FKN feat Jahala’s ‘Why’), he eventually parted company with the label in July of 2008. Alongside his insatiable Records label, he now owns and manages the Solaris Recordings label; the current label home of Solarstone’s recordings.

Solarstone in Quotes:
Armin: ‘Solarstone sets the standard for the best in Balearic dance music’.
Paul van Dyk: ‘I’ve been playing his music for more then 10 years now. Really looking forward to the new album!
Tiësto: ‘Solarstone never disappoints… warm, beautiful and just amazing music’.
Ferry Corsten: ‘Always been a fan of Solarstone. The new single Rain Stars Eternal is an amazing track’.
Above & Beyond: ‘Solarstone is the REAL DEAL!’
Mixmag: ‘Top dog when it comes to melodic monsters’.
DJ Mag: A consummate all-rounder from the UK’s original trance master’.