UK PROGRESSIVE ROCK GROUP SOLSTICE ANNOUNCE 8TH STUDIO ALBUM ‘CLANN’ WITH NEWLY RELEASED SINGLE “FIREFLY” ZOOM EXCLUSIVE WITH ANDY GLASS FOUNDING MEMBER/GUITARIST & SONGWRITER

 

UK PROGRESSIVE ROCK GROUP

 S O L S T I C E 

ANNOUNCE 8^TH STUDIO ALBUM 

‘CLANN’ 

WITH NEWLY RELEASED SINGLE 

“FIREFLY” 

ZOOM EXCLUSIVE with

A N D Y  G L A S S 

FOUNDING MEMBER ...GUITARIST... SONGWRITER

Voted Best Band in Prog magazine’s latest annual Reader's Poll, and arriving on an exuberant wave of positivity created by previous albums Sia (2020) and Light Up (2022), both widely acclaimed within the prog community and beyond, Clann completes the most recent phase of Solstice’s 40-plus year career.

As band founder, composer, and guitarist (winner of Prog magazine’s most recent Best Guitarist Prog Award) Andy Glass explains, “[Sia] made me realize the potential and by the time we were working on Light Up the whole band had raised its game. I believed then that a trilogy of albums was what it would take to create our best work and track that journey. Clann is the final album in the Sia Trilogy and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be. Let’s hope the universe likes it too.” Clann manages to cover a great deal of musical ground in its nearly 40-minute running time.

Firefly opens up proceedings and will be familiar to many already through its airing at numerous gigs and its inclusion on both the band’s Live At The Stables and Return To Cropredy releases. Its pulse-pumping energy, hard-edged yet infectious grooves, whirling bursts of synth and violin and its glorious guitar solo lift the spirit and sweep us into Solstice’s mesmerizing world.

Elsewhere Life delivers smooth, soulful, modern pop with an elegant dance-friendly heart and Plunk is taut swaggering funk in 7/8 with brass stabs and a leftfield, gritty guitar solo. Frippa is built on an urgent, bluesy Crimson-Esque riff in 5 and spotlights organ, violin and even more incendiary guitar. Final track, the 14-minute Twin Peaks, in some ways harks back to what prog polymath and longtime Solstice fan Steven Wilson once described as the band’s “spacey and spacious” early material – it’s gentle, reflective and airy with pastoral, folky strains, yet builds into a soaring expression of rapturous celebration and spiritual freedom. Solstice will be supporting the release of Clann with a strings of live dates including festival appearances in the UK, Europe and north America. The band’s live work has been fundamental to their growing popularity with a wide audience demographic.

PURCHASE THE NEW ALBUM

BY

S O L S T I C E

Entitled

‘C L A N N’

Available at

https://essentials.progrock.com/product/solstice-clann/

featuring their new single

“FIREFLY”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

ABOUT

S O L S T I C E

VISIT

https://www.solsticeprog.uk/

Official website

https://www.facebook.com/solsticeprog

Facebook

https://www.youtube.com/@solsticeuk

YouTube

https://www.instagram.com/solsticeproguk/

Instagram

https://www.solsticeprog.uk/solstice-media/andys-guitar-corner

Andy’s Guitar Corner

SOLSTICE ON TOUR 2025

Fusion 6

09th Mar 2025

The Civic, Stourport

 

Queen Victoria Hall, Oundle

05th Apr 2025

Queen Victoria Hall, Oundle

 

The 1865, Southampton

09th Apr 2025

The 1865, Southampton

 

The Earl Haig Club, Cardiff

10th Apr 2025

Earl Haig Club, Cardiff

 

The Old Cold Store, Nottingham

11th Apr 2025

The Old Cold Store, Nottingham

 

Parish, Huddersfield

12th Apr 2025

The Parish, Huddersfield

 

The Corporation, Sheffield

13th Apr 2025

The Corporation, Sheffield

 

Colchester Arts Centre

17th Apr 2025

Colchester Arts Centre

 

Solstice at The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes

Craufurd Arms

18th Apr 2025 7:30 pm

The Craufurd Arms

 

Downstairs at The Dome

20th Apr 2025 6:30 pm

Downstairs at The Dome, London

 

Midsummer Prog 2025

23rd May 2025 - 24th May 2025

Midsummer Prog

 

Wokingham Festival

25th Aug 2025

Wokingham Festival

 

Stables, Milton Keynes

30th Aug 2025

The Stables, Milton Keynes

 

The Sunday Club, 45 Live, Kidderminster

31st Aug 2025

The Sunday Club, 45 Live Venue, Kidderminster

 

Summer's End 2025

02nd Oct 2025

Drill Hall, Chepstow

SOLSTICE

DISCOGRAPHY

Studio albums

    Silent Dance (1984)

    New Life (1993)

    Circles (1997)

    Spirit (2010)

    Prophecy (2013)

    Sia (released 23 November 2020)

    Light Up (2022)

Clann (2025)

 

Live albums

    The Cropredy Set (2002)

    Kindred Spirits (2011)

    Live in Veruno (2022)

 

Compilation albums

    Pathways (1998)

    The Beginners Guide To Solstice (2023)

 

ANDY GLASS

APPEARS 

MARCH 14TH 2025

ON INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS 

WITH RAY SHASHO

THE ROCK STAR CHRONICLES

BOOK TRAILER

 

BOOK REVIEW

-By Literary Titan (5) STARS

The Rock Star Chronicles by Ray Shasho, is a splendid book written by a music enthusiast who has poured their heart and soul into it. It’s a story of a boy who loved rock music, and his obsessive passion of it earned himself the name Rock Raymond. He went to school but instead was schooled in all matters of music while his peers were buried chin-deep in coursework. He then became a radio DJ and has now compiled a book on all interviews he held with Rock gods who raided the airwaves back in the 70s and 80s. It’s a compilation of interviews with outstanding vocalists, legendary guitarists and crazy drummers in the rock music scene. Each interview gives a reader an in-depth view into their personal lives and the philosophies that guide their lives which all serve to humanize these great icons. For readers who are old enough to call themselves baby boomers this book will bring old memories back to life. Millennials, on the other hand, may think of this book as a literal work of the Carpool Karaoke show. 

The Rock Star Chronicles is a book I didn’t know I was waiting for. To come across a book that will talk me into trying something new. One brave enough to incite me to venture into new frontiers. This book made me a believer- I am now a bona fide Rock and Roll music fan. 

Ray Shasho masterfully gets the interviewees talking. He smartly coaxes answers from them with crafty questions designed to get a story rolling out of them. The artists talk about diverse issues ranging from music, politics, and their social engagements. Having been on the music seen all his life, Ray Shasho knows the buttons to press, how to get them comfortable about talking about their lives. 

The book’s cover is befitting of its subject matter with the leather look offering a royal background to the golden letter print. It speaks to how high a level rock music holds in the pecking order- arguably, modern music as we know it has originated from blues and rock music.  The second noteworthy thing is the use of high-definition pictures to reference the musician being interviewed in every sub-chapter. This ensures that the book is for both original rock and roll lovers and aspiring new ones. Together is makes for a refreshing and consistently enjoyable read.

I recommend this book to rock music enthusiasts, aspiring musicians wondering what it takes and all readers curious to learn new things by going back in time.

https://literarytitan.com/2020/05/03/literary-titan-book-awards-may-2020/   

Gold Award Winner

MORE BOOKS BY RAY SHASHO

COMING SOON

RAY'S INCREDIBLE NEW 

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