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Biography for Quebec band Solstice: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6066, the other artist in Julien's list with only three characters in their biography.

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Formed in Quebec, Canada, 1976, Disbanded in 1981.

SOLSTICE were initially a four-piece Québécois jazz-rock band formed in 1976 by Daniel LAFRANCE (electric guitar, 12-string guitar, percussion), Daniel MATHIEU (bass), Michel MARTINEAU (clarinet) and Gilles DOZOIS (drums, percussion). They released two albums between 1978 and 1981 on their own Les Disques Cadence label - a label set up in Montreal in 1978 by Gabrielle WATIER, Michel MARTINEAU and Daniel LAFRANCE which also issued titles for NÉBU (another obscure Québécois group of which Michel MARTINEAU was an ex-member), CONVENTUM and L’ ORCHESTRE SYMPATHETIQUE.

However, the band didn't receive the same level of support as some of the more well-known names that emerged during the huge progressive movement in Quebec back in the 1970s, resulting in bassist Daniel MATHIEU leaving after the release of the 1978 'Mirage' debut album to be replaced on bass by Yves NADEAU. The band also recruited keyboard player Jean-Yves ROBILLARD for their second album 'Espresso', which they released in 1981 - making them briefly a five-piece. The band broke up shortly after the album's release though, which also spelled the end for Les Disques Cadence.

Daniel LAFRANCE now works as the managing director of a successful music publishing company. Recalling his early foray into the business with SOLSTICE, Daniel explains, "I was a composer, guitar player and producer. I was also booking the shows, doing promo, and I started a label and began producing other bands." Throughout the 1980s, LAFRANCE whittled down his packed resume, eventually focusing on management alongside his evolving production duties. Although he played less and less, he kept himself busy being a Jack-of-all-trades for various artists, including FRANCINE RAYMOND and the Montreal based jazz-rock fusion band UZEB. When UZEB split up in 1992, LAFRANCE opted to focus entirely on publishing.

A year after the demise of SOLSTICE, Michel MARTINEAU began playing clarinet with the jazz outfit QUARTZ, which was formed in August 1982 by percussionist Mathieu LÉGER and bassist Warren STOLOW (both formerly of L'ORCHESTRE SYMPATHETIQUE) plus Ivanhoé JOLICOUER on trumpet and flugelhorn. They played at the Festival du Grand Café in October of that year, and also did a few shows in France. They were then joined by Sylvain PROVOST on guitar, and won the Yamaha Award (Concours de Jazz Yamaha) for best performance at the 4th Montreal International Jazz Festival in July 1983. The show was recorded and is featured on the group's only album, one of the best jazz albums to be released in the 1980s.

SOLSTICE played jazz-rock fusion with a generally soft atmosphere, allowing their use of the clarinet to be heard quite prominently in the mix. They have been compared to the US band WEATHER REPORT and the UK jazz rockers NUCLEUS.

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Albums need some attention too:

Mirage (1978): https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=31640.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4911937-Solstice-Mirage.

- Daniel Lafrance / electric guitar, 12-string guitar, percussion

Recorded and mixed in March and April 1978 at Studio Listen Audio, Montreal

Vinyl LP Les Disques Cadence - CAD 1001 (1978, Canada)

Espresso (1981): https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=31641.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4911962-Solstice-Espresso.

- Daniel Lafrance / electric guitar, 12-string guitar, percussion

Recorded and mixed at Studio Expérience in December 1979.

Vinyl LP Les Disques Cadence - CAD 1007 (1981, Canada)

Note: Discogs says the Espresso album was released in 1980, but everywhere else it seems to be regarded as a 1981 album.

Edit: Added a little bit more to the biography to flesh it out a bit. Solstice themselves don't seem to have left much of a footprint on the Internet.

As an aside, does that Jacques Tom Rivest album really belong under Pollen? I know that two other former members of Pollen played on it, but Pollen as a band split up in 1976, and the solo album didn't land until three years later. Perhaps Jacques Tom Rivest needs to be evaluated for inclusion here in his own right, since with his name shortened to just "Tom", he recorded the self-titled "Tom Rivest" in 1981 and followed it up with the now hard-to-find "Voyage Dans L'Univers" a few years later in 1984. This latter album has been described as beautiful all-instrumental synth-driven ambient new age music, with some nice Floyd-ish progressive tones.

Edit 2: The current band picture is not very prominent, being a long thin strip showing the original four band members arranged side by side. Discogs has the same image with the four musicians arranged two above and two below, this being an almost square image. I think this image, if used, would be more noticeable on the page.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1737273-Pluto-Ouverture.

- Petter Espen Guthe / guitars, vocals, keyboards

With:

- Gunnar Berg-Nilsen / drums, percussion (10), synthesiser [bass] (5)

- Jomar Johansen / synthesiser (2), saxophone (6, 8)

- Knut Meyn / flute (8)

Vinyl LP Strawberry Records - SRLP 106 (1982, Norway)

projeKct wrote: I tried to update Solstice's band picture... but I thing there might be a delay with the server. Maybe we'll see the change tomorrow?

Yeah, its still showing the old band pic for me too. The main site server has been dreadful for several weeks now to be honest - sometimes you wait ages for the pages to load, and you often get the Cloudflare timeout message displayed instead. The problem may last only a few minutes, but sometimes it's several hours before I can access the main site again.

projeKct wrote: yam yam wrote: As an aside, does that Jacques Tom Rivest album really belong under Pollen? I know that two other former members of Pollen played on it, but Pollen as a band split up in 1976, and the solo album didn't land until three years later. Perhaps Jacques Tom Rivest needs to be evaluated for inclusion here in his own right, since with his name shortened to just "Tom", he recorded the self-titled "Tom Rivest" in 1981 and followed it up with the now hard-to-find "Voyage Dans L'Univers" a few years later in 1984. This latter album has been described as beautiful all-instrumental synth-driven ambient new age music, with some nice Floyd-ish progressive tones. I think you are right. You should submit this to the appropriate team.

I'll post something about this in the Suggest New Bands and Artists section and see what the various collabs that frequent that section of the forum have to say on the matter.

Edit: Here's the post about the Jacques Tom Rivest album in Suggest New Bands and Artists: https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131991. The Solstice band Photo is still showing as the old one for me almost a whole day after the attempt was made to change it, so it looks like something went wrong there.

Edit 2: Solstice new band photo is now showing on their page. 

I've also added that "Land of Green (3 Parts Consolidated) (19:25)" is available on digital version only.

Total Time 39:58

Only admins can delete topics, I think. You should contact them, thanks!

Thanks Mayer, done.