Nothing prepared me for the extraordinary new line-up that they have settled on in the last few years. Solstice are back and are back to being brilliant. Their forthcoming album, Light Up, is utterly sensational: beautiful production, great songs, great voices, tricky rhythms and epic guitar solos.

Wow - that's a great sounding album. Very Solstice, and with a wonderfully dynamic vibe. It evokes the spirit of the band I first saw in the 80s, but with very much a here and now production sound and brings with it the wisdom of those ensuing years. It really sounds alive!

Sia is an album of lush, refreshing and emotionally nourishing compositions, a very contemporary field, sumptuous sounds and marvellous melodies, perform with real passion and conviction that nevertheless remains true to the sensibilities that Solstice have embodied since the early days.

Light Up is, as much as anything Solstice have ever released, a comprehensive musical celebration of their own unique furrow, bringing together all of the strands running through their work, and knitting them together into one highly satisfying whole.

If you don't know Solstice yet, starting with Prophecy is a good idea, and the three bonus tracks (when heard in isolation from the new material) should make you curious about Silent Dance and the band's other albums. Solstice is a great and unfairly overlooked band well worthy of your attention.

This double LP captures the band in full flight at Cropredy in 2023. Making everything sound relaxed and effortless, yet with unfettered exuberance never far away, founding member, founder and guitarist Andy Glass leads this merry band through a combination of the old and the new (a rousing Shout from 2021's Sia and an effervescent Mount Ephraim from Light Up).