'Haunt Me' - the new collab with Susie Ledge that locks you in on first listen.
Bold prediction perhaps, but we’ll say it anyway: ‘Haunt Me’s a one-and-done — the kind of record that locks you in on first listen and plays on loop in the mind, long after the speakers have gone quiet.
In that instant catch, there’s a certain irony too, as, for the first time in his career, Solarstone delivers back-to-back single releases featuring the same vocalist. After December’s ‘star’ (drawn from his 2025 ‘innermost’ sessions), it’s clear, with Susie Ledge, that he knew he was onto something special.
She picks the mic back up for ‘Haunt Me’ — and true to its title … she absolutely will.
Ledge’s song explores the lingering imprint of love on memory, where physical distance is eclipsed by a closeness felt only in the mind. Through echoic metaphor, her words capture the intensity of absence —a lingering meditation on connections that endure beyond separation.
Setting her contemplations to melody, Solarstone answers it with a production that’s compelling but disciplined. The energy’s all there: striking, striving percussion and purposeful bass — yet his riffs are measured, never overreaching, and allow Susie’s voice to lead his synths. It walks the line between understatement and ascendance, keeping the energy high while the feels stay front and centre.
A track built not on spectacle, but on substance, with ‘Haunt Me’, Rich and Susie prove that subtlety can still move dancefloor mountains.
Tracklist
01. Solarstone & Susie Ledge – Haunt Me (Original Mix)
02. Solarstone & Susie Ledge – Haunt Me (Extended Mix)
XiJaro & Pitch remix fan favourite 'Once'
Originally released in 2015, ‘Once’ was Solarstone’s collaboration with IKO (famed for their ‘Heart of Stone’ contribution to the Twilight movie saga). A standalone single between Solarstone’s ‘Pure’ and ‘One’ album projects, ‘Once’ has become a firm fan favourite.
Now, for 2026, the track is reimagined by a duo perfectly suited to rework a Solarstone production: XiJaro & Pitch. Their remix innovates while staying true to the essence of the original. Road-tested at Dreamstate, A State Of Trance, and Luminosity Beach Festival, this uplifting trance reinterpretation is set to become one of the defining vocal-trance releases of 2026.
The Solar, ‘star’ (and Starburst!) planets are aligning for ‘innermost’’s latest.
An uptick in the upbeat, a lift to the lively and a swell of the spirited: with the seasons’ shift, Solarstone vibe has gotten itself locked in the ‘up’ position of late! First came last month’s floor-entrancing ‘Memoryland’ – a release that picked out the innerspace between dream-state and total recall … while also arriving with something mother-clubbing magnificent!Now we have ‘star’ – which has Rich dipping back into his ‘innermost’ album trove.
That said though … that ‘star’ is not this ‘star’!
Originally conceived as an atmospherically laidback “Sabres Of Paradise’s ‘Smokebelch’ meets Enya” number, the track began its 4/4 metamorphosis when singer Susie Ledge began ghosting its circuitry. Now adding further club weight, Solarstone’s tapped Leon Bolier to create a Starburst rework, that boosts it that much later into late-night.
It’s half criminal and half-astonishing that, despite their similar timelines, the pair haven’t shared studio space before. They make amends here though, with a production that fair explodes with drumatic orchestral kicks, sky raking synths, and an end-of-the-night paced bass. That in turn projects Susie Ledge’s Gaelic-tinged (and irrepressibly sing-along-catchy!) song into a whole other galaxy.
Too early to say “anthem” !? Maybe, but the Solar, ‘star’ (and Starburst!) planets are very much aligning for ‘innermost’’s latest here.
Tracklist
01. Solarstone & Susie Ledge – star (Solarstone & Leon Bolier Starburst Mix – 7” Mix)
02. Solarstone & Susie Ledge – star (Solarstone & Leon Bolier Starburst Mix – 12” Mix)
A floor-rushing hit of adrenaline.
Within an artist’s range, there’s a lot to be said for contrast. You’d be hard pressed to find two more opposite ends of a spectrum than ‘innermost’, Solarstone’s 2025 artist album – and what he’s presenting us with, as the year enters its last quarter.
While ‘innermost’ found Richard at his most musically introspective and lyrically heart-on-sleeve, ‘Memoryland’ flips multiple POVs to run 2025 out with a floor-rushing hit of adrenaline.
As he was writing ‘Memoryland’, Solarstone took inspiration from a single word.
Reality.
The fabric between a long-recollected memory and a lived experience can, at times, begin to diverge. ‘Memoryland’ became the idiom the artist adopted for what lies within that conflicted crack. Not rooted in back-glancing nostalgia, but in what he sees as “the occasional illusion of recall,” the track draws a sonic dreamscape, where remembered and abstract moments begin, inevitably, to intertwine.
Driven by crisp percussion, rolling basslines, and a synthery that’s constantly radiating outwards, ‘Memoryland’ uncannily captures that paradox. Melodic arpeggios rise and fall like reminiscences, while its layered pads and production rhythmics rub at the lines between the actual and the imagined.
Repositioning after ‘innermost’ to point the Solarstone mirror back out at the world, ‘Memoryland’ arrives today through all good sales and streaming channels.
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone – ‘Memoryland’ (Original Mix)
02. Solarstone – ‘Memoryland’ (Extended Mix)
A love letter to mid-90s progressive house
A love letter to mid-90s progressive house, dream sequence is one of the standout singles from Solarstone’s recently released Innermost album. The track transports listeners to a time when acts like Leftfield, Fluke, and Underworld soundtracked post-clubbing sessions, a deeply personal era for Solarstone. Created as part of an album designed to challenge Rich like never before, dream sequence stands out with its intricate hooks, layered textures, hypnotic loops, and nuanced samples. It’s a release that doesn’t just ask to be heard, it asks to be felt and contemplated.
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone – ‘dream sequence’ (7” Mix)
02. Solarstone – ‘dream sequence’ (12” Mix)
'over the mountains' brings that classic happy-sad Solarstone feel
From its earliest moments, ‘innermost’, Solarstone’s 2025 artist album promised something from Richard Mowatt rooted in reflection, candour, and revelation. A longplayer emotionally centred around life aspects such as becoming a husband, and a father again, while watching his firstborn come of age was always going to cut close.
Following the atmospherically instrumental overtures of ‘shivelight’ and ‘sonata’, last month its singles path led to vocal ground. In keeping with the Clara Yates penned-and-sung, ‘your sacrifice’, ‘over the mountains’ is another piece of music with a deep, familial connections to the artist. So much so that when it came to putting the vocals to it, Rich instinctively picked up that mantle himself.
Having previously lent song to several of his own works (‘Late Summer Fields’, ‘Lovers’ & ‘Shards’ among them), Solarstone’s not necessarily a stranger to doing so. ‘over the mountains’ however has a unique type of emotional genesis, which Rich himself goes on to explain …
“Back in the day, I used to whisper “down the valley / up the hill / over the mountains” to my son, Oscar, as something of a lullaby when I put him to bed. He left home recently and that hit me hard. So, I turned that little phrase into a full track, one that has that classic happy-sad Solarstone feel: warm, expressive, infused with a quiet assurance.”
Tuned to the vocal’s lullaby-like drift, Rich’s new 12” Mix burns bright – charting a clear course to the clubfloor. Anchored by a low-end throb, it threads melodic pads, shimmering chords, breakbeat accents, trilling FX, and the original’s acoustic strings into something at that’s at once intricate and affecting.
‘over the mountains’ is available via all major sales and streaming platforms now here. The ‘innermost’ album is on full release and available ‘here’.
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone – ‘over the mountains’ (7” Mix)
02. Solarstone – ‘over the mountains’ (12” Mix)
'your sacrifice' moving hearts, minds and dancefloors.
First came ‘shivelight’, then ‘sonata’, and last month Solarstone delivered us his introspective ‘innermost’ with the release of the musician/DJ’s ninth studio album. Into July, and the LP’s singles take on a more vocal nature, as hand in hand with singer-songwriter Clara Yates, he brings us ‘your sacrifice’.
In keeping with the album’s unflinchingly open-book approach, Richard was looking for equally fearless collaborators for it, and in the English-born/Australian-based artist he most certainly found one.
“Clara’s wrote the song about her father, and when I heard the vocal, it struck me immediately. Around the time, I’d been thinking a lot about my own relationship with my kids — periods being away from them, on tour and what that means to everyone involved.“
Clara goes on to elaborate, “I’m a firm believer of songwriting done right. Songs have to mean something and come from the depths of somebody and not just be words for the sake of them.
‘As Rich says, ‘your sacrifice’ was written about my father Frederick who raised me and my siblings alone back in the late 80s – 90s. With a very ill mother, no struggle or sacrifice was too great to ensure we were fed, had a roof over out head, homework done on time, whilst making sure we all had smiles on our faces. Not enough praise goes to single fathers and just how tough it is for them. They deserve all the recognition and good in the world.”
Talking about ‘your sacrifice’s production, Rich continues ‘I decided to keep Clara’s voice really soft in the mix. I wanted people to lean into it, to really have to listen close to what she was saying.” From there, he musically expanded the album’s original vision into a full-length, 12” voyage, embracing its progressive house core to the nth. Melting melodies, bass pulse and its cinematically-edged strings all combine to move hearts, minds, and dancefloors in equal measure.
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone & Clara Yates – ‘your sacrifice’ (7” Mix)
02. Solarstone & Clara Yates – ‘your sacrifice’ (12” Mix)
innermost, the new album by solarstone.
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.
“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 timewise, 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 from June 12.
formats.
limited edition | signed option available | digital download & stream
double white vinyl with gatefold and inner sleeve artwork
CD with slipcase and 16-page booklet
digital download & streaming
tracklisting.
shivelight
your sacrifice (with clara yates)
over the mountains
dream sequence
star (with susie ledge)
innermost
underground (with evan henzi)
sonata
boy
complicated
innermost's overture is here: 'shivelight'
‘Atmosphere’ and ‘mood’: in relation to Solarstone’s upcoming (May 2025) artist LP, ‘innermost’, they’re going to be two descriptives you’ll be hearing a lot of.
Overturing the album itself, opening its singles account (and indeed the first track Solarstone completed for ‘innermost’) is ‘shivelight’. With it, he affords a first look/listen at a longplayer that differs in structure, tone and feel from any that have come before it.
The single is Richard’s musical encapsulation of the shivelight effect, the one created when shafts of sunlight filter through trees, creating a dappled or shimmering result.
Shadowed by his pads and chords, it opens to deep, resonant baritone guitar strums, which callback to the hook of ‘Falling’ – Julee Cruise’s timeless Twin Peaks theme. Wistful sub-melodies hauntingly echo the call of its siren song harmonies, while breakbeats reinforce the track’s sombre etherealism. As it progresses, delicate fleeting notes break through its otherworldly shade, bringing the track an innate feeling of ‘hope being kept alive’.
Tracklist:
01. Solarstone – ‘shivelight’ (7″ Mix)
02. Solarstone – ‘shivelight’ (12″ Mix)
A brand new #PureMix to kickstart 2025!
A brand new #PureMix from Solarstone marks our first release of 2025. One of the standout cuts from Solarstone’s ‘In Search of Sunrise 20’ compilation gets the renowned #PureMix treatment, all of Patagonia’s beautiful, goosebump-inducing elements are in place, injected with a dizzying dose of euphoria.