Solstice

Founded in late 2001, Solstice Coil is one of the most veteran bands currently operating in Israel's progressive rock and metal scene. Dedicated to the notion of combining intellectually challenging music with reflective lyrics and high production values, the band draws its influence from artists such as Radiohead, Muse, Porcupine Tree, Oceansize, The Mars Volta and Dream Theater…

An off-the-wall and extraordinarily beautiful album, Food For Thought is London sextet Solstice's follow-up to Alimentation (Two Rivers), a niche-jazz landmark in 2016. The album blends jazz with prog-rock and tropicalia-like psychedelia. It is intricate, lyrical and wildly inventive. It is also technically demanding and forensically arranged, yet it all sounds effortless. It is, most of the time, impossible to tell what is improvised and what is pre-composed. It is a jazz album unlike any other we have heard since, well, 2016.

When Ralph Towner burst onto the contemporary jazz scene in the mid-70s, listeners were well aware of his awesome talent as a member of Oregon. But when Solstice was issued on the ECM label, it took the brilliant guitarist's caché to a much higher level, especially as a composer. With the otherworldly curved soprano sax and flute playing of Jan Garbarek, the precise drumming of Jon Christensen, and unique bass sounds of Eberhard Weber, the music on this album lifted the ECM/Euro-styled jazz and improvised music to a new realm of pure expressionism. Simply put - this music is stunningly beautiful. The incredible "Oceanus" begins with Towner's cascading guitar, followed by the swelling and symphonic bass of Weber, a swinging drum line by Christensen with Garbarek's atmospheric and dramatic curved soprano layering contrasting timbres, symmetry, and unusual colors…