Touchstone Out Now!

Over the last 5 weeks we’ve counted you down to the release of Solarstone’s stellar new artist album, keeping you up-to-date with the virals, the launch party, the comps and the mini-docs.. Well as of 9am today the timer ran down to 00:00 and the main event rolled out... ‘Touchstone’ is now available for all!

You can get hold of the download version through iTunes (including digital booklet) Beatport, Trackitdown, Audiojelly and many other fine Digital Download sellers or pick up a signed CD copy and free Touchstone sticker set through the Solarstone web-shop. Why deny yourself this summer’s most essential long-player! Hit it!


 Touchstone Mini-doc #2 Online!

The first one caused a minor sensation and now, just one week before the release of the album itself (standby for an in-depth track by track next week BTW), Richard has online-d the second behind-the-scenes Touchstone mini-doc. Part 2 sees documentary team Our Man In The Field leave the countryside studio setting and head with Richard into the heart of London, for Solarstone’s performance at the O2 Arena in April. Throughout the 3 hour set, he first debuted many of the album’s tracks for the first time and you can see how the epic 10 minute title track Touchstone dropped for the first time.


 Points mean Prizes!

When we kicked off the future-perfect viral campaign for Touchstone 4 weeks ago, we promised you prizes… Not just any old clearing-out-the-cupboard prizes, but for our highest point achievers something exclusive… in the extreme! And now we’re delighted to announce exactly what they will be! The 10 people with the highest point count at the end of the contest (full details here) will receive a 1-of-10 signed vinyl test pressings of a special mix of a Solarstone track. Only ten pieces of vinyl will ever exist, and if you’re a winner you’ll be able to lay claim to owing one of them! Instant forum/chillout room cred! In addition you will receive an exclusive Touchstone winners t-shirt, signed CD and poster/sticker pack. Hot, right!? But that ain’t all. For one person - the individual that spreads the word of Touchstone, the farthest, the widest and the loudest - will have a remix of a Solarstone track named in their honour! Your place in dance music history confirmed… forever.

It’s never too late to start participating in the contest. If you’ve got a large circle of electronic dance loving friends, you could be shooting up the Touchstone ranks within hours of starting! Kick off or check your progress right here.



Get ready to experience... Touchstone!

Definitions Of Touchstone:

* (1) The recognition of, or reference to, a visionary source of inspiration.
* (2) A standard by which others can be measured.

In 2008 he produced Rain Stars Eternal, his rebirth 2.0 artist album and in 2009 he imagined and created Electronic Architecture - his IDMA-nominated concept compilation vision. Now, for a new decade, Solarstone returns with… Touchstone. In ways big and small, conscious or otherwise, inspiration happens to everyone, everyday of their lives. Musicians are perhaps intrinsically even more open to it. Lines thick, thin, straight and curved are drawn to productions that span back over many decades... In his own production work, identifying these inspirations, down to their smallest elements is something that Solarstone (composer, producer, singer & DJ Richard Mowatt) has long been captivated by.

Touchstone, his new artist album, brings these inspirations out of the cortex and into the light, ‘musically mapping’, for the first time, an artist that has at every turn sought to redefine the word trance. As with every album ever produced, influences are there to be picked up on by the listener. On Touchstone though they are first illuminated, clarified and examined by the artist himself. Richard himself goes on to explain: "To me musical inspiration comes in many forms. It can be artists that I’ve fallen in love with wholesale and still venerate to this day, or simply fragments of music that made a lasting impression at arbitrary points in my life”. 'Touchstone' is a culmination of all those inspirations".




 Touchstone Microsite Online!

Solarstone's brand new artist album 'Touchstone' will be released on June 28th 2010 on Solaris Recordings. Its dedicated microsite has just gone live and will be there in the run up to the release and beyond to keep you up to date with all the info-bursts. Featured on it over the next few weeks will be some incredible on-location mini-documentaries that take you behind the musical creation of ‘Touchstone’. There will also be some great free music downloads (on the site already is an exclusive, unreleased, don’t-miss mix of the new Solarstone single ‘Electric Love’) and amazing competitions (more about which below!). Check out the microsite now!

Send Touchstone Viral!

In a wholly new cutting-edge fashion we want you to Participate in the album’s release! We have created a points = prizes feature on the website for registered users to help us spread word of ‘Touchstone’ around the worldwideweb. You can help us by embedding 'Touchstone' widgets on your social networking pages, forums & websites. The widgets enable people visiting your pages to listen to tracks from the album and then themselves get involved. You can recommend friends to join and every time your widget has a friend sign up or creates a sale, you automatically get points added to your account. And remember best of all: Points are going to equal some pretty incredible Prizes! Go now to the signin & particiapate page to find out more!

Solarstone Label Collective Update!

Solarstone  'Electric Love Remixed' (SLRS045) Second installment of mixes here on this taster of Solarstone's forthcoming long player 'Touchstone'. Bottin's remix redefines nu italo and soaks it with proto-chicago house, interweaving occasional vocal elements. The Bottin Dub does all of the above minus the vocal snippets. Brooklyn underground stalwart Royal Sapien's take is a beautiful atmospheric breaks / drum & bass hybrid, minus the vox on the Dub. Out now on Solaris Recordings.
Gary Orvis 'Try To Find' (CRWV007) Courtesy of Solaris International comes Russia's Gary Orvis’ with his standout freshman production ‘Try To Find’. Fully loaded with a deep ‘n’ proper progressive remix from Nick Rowland, it has already notched up a tasty 5/5 in January’s issue of DJ Mag, who say that it has a "strikingly original melodic-cum-euphoric top-line" and that "over repeat spins the driving undercurrent of the backing track comes increasingly to the fore". Nice! Out now on Crashing Waves
Solar Energy  'Close To Heaven' (SWARM002) This is the very second release on the worlds very first - and only - social network record label. 'Close To Heaven' was chosen by the solarSwarm for it's beautiful uplifting melodies. The Original mix is pure mainroom trance material. Sied Van Riel (chosen by the Swarmers for remix duties) delivers his trademark punchy sound, keeping faithful to the original melodies. Additional mixes come from Swarmer Dennis Dekker (prog) and Solar Energy himself (chill). Out now on solarSwarm Recordings.
Arrival To Moon 'Perfect (MLCL002) The second release is a very unusual record with infectious quirky vocal lines. The vocalist is Natasha Yatsuliak, and the track is produced by Mihail Krikalov, both of whom hail from the Ukraine. The Original and Electrojazz mixes both draw on melodic prog influences, and Alan Danat drops a slick housey alternative take, even providing a tasty Dub. We've enlisted Russian luminary Gary Orvis to cater for the Trance lovers amongst our listeners. Out now on Molecule Rcordings.

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