It’s been a minute since Solarstone’s last album. (Actually, it’s been several million of them, as “island” was released five years ago!). In that time life’s given us all plenty to ponder, and Rich Solarstone’s no exception to that. At a point in time where everything is supposed to streamline, Solarstone’s experience might better be described as ‘mainline’. He became a husband, a father again and watched his firstborn come of age. A lot of new perspectives are naturally going to follow that. No stranger to pouring his creative force, thoughts and feelings into his music, that reaches an apex this month with the release of his ninth album.
Make no mistake … this one’s coming from deep within.
“Good music demands that you push yourself, and the best of it also forces you to take risks … ” says Rich Mowatt, “and I’m more than aware that ‘innermost’ inherently carries some of the latter.
In its native form, this is not a club album, but then I didn’t see 2020’s‘ island’ as one either. I believe that area is better addressed by my singles ‘(Shards,’ ‘Hope,’ ‘Sovereign,’ ‘Thinking Of You,’ and so forth), and the Pure Trance albums” (three editions of which have been released since 2020). That leaves latter-day Solarstone artist albums more open to explore …to range, so the clubbier tracks that do exist on ‘innermost’ are woven into a broader sonic texture.
I feel that tough is good”, he continues. “Hard … is good. It never, ever seems like it when you are in the middle of it, but without going through those, life’s highest highs can’t be felt to their fullest. At its core that’s what ‘innermost’ is about. It’s certainly my most honest longplayer to date, as well as my most polished. It took five years to make so there’s no excuses for it not to be!”, he jokes.
“To put that into some context, ‘shivelight’ (the effect created when shafts of sunlight filter through trees) is a track I started working on the same year as ‘island’ was released. It would’ve been almost indecent not to open the album with it, but luckily its baritone guitars proved the ideal scene-set for everything that comes after.
Clara Yates wrote the song ‘your sacrifice’ about her father. As I read through the lyrics, I recognised they were immediately personal to her, but she was also expressing sentiments that I believed most could relate to. That was personally inspiring, and it spurred me to produce ‘over the mountains.’ It has elements of a song I used to sing as a lullaby of sorts to my first son, as well as having some ‘Seven Cities’ vibes to its production.”
“dream sequence” and “sonata,” which falls later in the album both take their cues from the heyday of progressive house. The former channels the early times of Underworld, Leftfield and others, while the latter imagines a Chopin-esque sonata arrangement seen through the prism of the dawn-of-the-genre sounds generated by labels like EyeQ, Harthouse and Superstition.
That continues to a degree on “innermost”‘s next piece, “star,” which features Susie Ledge. Says Rich, “I had (Sabres Of Paradise’s) ‘Smokebelch’ in my head while I was working on it and an Enya sample as a placeholder vocal. With her Gaelic inspired harmonies and song, Susie brilliantly picked up on that theme. This was another track that took an age to perfect, but time-wise, it was nothing compared to the title track itself. It took a week alone just to master the piano melody for ‘innermost,’ and emotionally, everything from the last five years somehow got bound up into it.”
With a title a that serves as a metaphor for its subject, “underground” addresses the complexities of depression. Singer Evan Henzi brilliantly delivers hope-tinged optimism to every word, as Rich’s production supplies its heartbeat. While “boy” was written following the birth of his second son, its subject is his firstborn. Reflecting on (as Rich dubs it) “the cradle to the rave” period of early adulthood, its swims with wistful pads, thrummed guitars and longer drawn strings. Second only in intimacy perhaps to “innermost” itself, “complicated,” the album’s denouement, is a consideration on new love, and what happens when expectation meets life head on.
An incredible album, brimming with honesty and clarity, “innermost” holds nothing back. You can find it through all good sales and streaming sites now.
solarstone.lnk.to/innermost
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone – shivelight
02. Solarstone & Clara Yates – your sacrifice
03. Solarstone – over the mountains
04. Solarstone – dream sequence
05. Solarstone & Susie Ledge – star
06. Solarstone – innermost
07. Solarstone & Evan Henzi – underground
08. Solarstone – sonata
09. Solarstone – boy
10. Solarstone – complicated
