Tag: Solstice

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Philadelphia’s Sri Lanka Shares Brooding and Driving “Solstice”

Sri Lanka is a Philadelphia-based band that originally formed back in 1986. The band quickly established a sound that draws from goth and post-punk, as well as elements of alternative rock and psych rock. They saw extraordinary popularity in the Philadelphia and New York underground music scenes of the late 1980s and 1990s before going through a series of tumultuous lineup changes following the departure of founding member and the tragic death of frontman Brett Turner

Suffering from depression, Turner took his own life back in 1989, when he was 20. The band went on to try out several vocalists before landing on Jose Maldonado. And with Maldonado, the Philadelphia-based post punk went on to record and release 1992’s Shadow and Ivy EP and 1993’s Here. Friction between band members Erb and Maldonado started early on and ultimately led to the band splitting down the middle shortly after the release of Here with Erb and Chairs going in one direction, Maldonado and Stein going in another. Rob Studt retired from music altogether.

Erb went on to rejoin his original founding partner Lee Daniels and formed the band [needle] in 1995.

Back in October 2020, the band announced the forthcoming release of Leviathan on their Facebook Fan page, after a 25 year hiatus. And that November, they released the album’s title track “Leviathan.” They also released two live recordings from Christmas 1998 at Philadelphia’s Club Memphis and February 1989 at Philadelphia’s Revival.

Leviathan‘s latest single “Solstice” is a driving bit of goth-tinged post punk featuring shoegazer guitar textures and industrial thump that seemingly channels Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like ACTORS, while showcasing the band’s ability to craft a driving and rousingly anthemic, catchy hook and chorus.

The band explains that “Solstice” was a previously unrecorded song written back in 1991 that may arguably one of the best songs they’ve ever written.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belgian Artist Solstice Releases a Coquettish Visual For Latin-Tinged “Amis”

Solstice is an emerging 24 year-old, Brussels-born and-based singer/songwriter, pianist and composer. The emerging Belgian artist can trace the origins of her career to her childhood: Solstice took piano lessons throughout her life — and she eventually attended the Dalcroze Institute before spending couple of years. She also wrote her own poetry. Gradually, she began pairing the poetry in her notebooks with original compositions. Interestingly, her work has been deeply inspired by her mother and her mother’s record collection, which included classical music, psych rock, French chanson, swing and several others — and all of those influences find their way into her music.

In 2015, the Belgian artist joined Zones À Défendre, a French environmentalist group, where she met a collection of poets, activists, thinkers, assorted radicals — and producer/musician Guy Waku.

Waku went on to produce the Belgian artist’s debut ep Amis venez à moi. Released last November, the EP features the Roland Devresse co-written “Amis.” Featuring a lush vocal arrangement for three part harmony, delivered in a coquettish French “Amis” is a slickly pop song that’s centered around a looping, tango-inspired production.

Directed by Gilet Jaune Guillemette Dur, the recently released video for “Amis” sees the emerging Belgian artist meet up at a local club and leads the entire club to a night of Latin-influenced dancing.