SILENT DANCE

Solstice are one of the important bands of the second wave of progressive rock, formed in 1980 in Milton Keynes and dissolving a few years later in '85, a period in which the band released a sole album - their magnificent debut 'Silent Dance'. The first iteration of the band had been busy with touring and gaining somewhat of a cult status, featuring the talents of guitar player Andy Glass, vocalist Sandy Leigh, violinist and keyboardist Marc Elton as well as bassist Mark Hawkins and drummer Martin Wright, and the music on 'Silent Dance' is a very different iteration of 80s progressive rock (if it even qualifies as prog in the first place), unlike the majority of the UK-based neo-prog bands, with Solstice exhibiting a very organic, folky and esoteric sound that reminisces the works of Yes, Renaissance, or even Curved Air.

The entire album is soaked with this uplifting atmosphere, earthy feel and natural sound that is quite plainly the sound of a band playing its tunes in the studio together. The chant-like and esoteric writing renders each single track on 'Silent Dance' a very tranquilizing, transcending experience that has to be rooted in the tradition of folk rock. At the same time, there is some gorgeous playing all over, with Andy Glass playing several extremely elegant and refined guitar solos and Marc Elton delivering a myriad of soaring, cathartic and purely magical violin sweeps, one of the cerebral flavors of the Solstice sound. Needless to say, the vocals of Sandy Leight fall within the range of Jon Anderson and Anny Haslam, through which the Yes reference becomes inevitable; especially when you hear the warm and melodic bass playing of Mark Hawkins. This band occupies a magical realm, giving us beautiful and evocative songs like 'Peace', 'Sunrise', 'Return of Spring', 'Brave New World', or 'Cheyenne'. Not a Marillion, nor an IQ, Solstice stand on the alternative path of the 80s progressive rock revival, re-discovering the genre's symphonic, dreamy, and peaceful roots - 'Silent Dance' is definitely one of the underrated minor masterpieces of this decade in the history of the genre.

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