[New Music] Solarstone – Pure Trance V.10 – mixed by Solarstone

October 27, 2023

Sharper eyes (and ears!) will have spotted that Pure Trance was absent from its regular autumnal release spot last year. Double-digit milestones take time to reach … but also time to perfect, hence Pure Trance took a preparatory 365 off in 2022. This allowed Richard Mowatt the latitude to plan, map and exactingly pull-off what he views as the most important instalment in the series to date.

All-good-things though, as the triumphant 10th edition of Solarstone’s Pure Trance music-manifesto / movement reaches stores and streams on November 3 …

Over its decade + crusade, the albums have been co-mixed by many a fellow puritan – Bryan Kearney, Orkidea, Activa, Sneijder, Stoneface & Terminal, Gai Barone and Giuseppe Ottaviani among them. For its epic tenth though, Richard Mowatt decided to take it entirely upon his own shoulders …
PTV10 is, as you will see, is a ‘Solostone’ affair …

Talking about its landmark, Solarstone says: “The number 10 seemed like a sort of punctuation point, which is why I decided to fully take the reins of this 3-disc edition and curate, compile and mix it myself. Across its discs I wanted to echo the flow of a PT show, which moves across the span of the four Pure labels (Progressive, Breaks, Trance & NEON). So, we have the deeper sound on Disc 1 (Pure Progressive and Breaks), leading to the dreamy sound on Disc 2 (Pure Trance) and the harder sound…. well, you get the idea, I’m sure! Overall, though, it’s all about celebrating the sound of Trance music – the journey, the emotion of it. This is of course why Pure Trance exists, which is something I cannot thank you all enough for being a part of !”

Behind the scenes the releases have always been involved undertakings, but ’10’ turns that up to 11. Allowing him to fully ‘get under their hood’ and fine tune each track to the album’s mix, Solarstone uses a process of ‘stem mixing’. This allows him to weave together isolated layers of each track to ensure each mix-movement is not just excellent … but is also flawless, seamless transition.

As its customary “this is Pure” greeting skates across the chill of Robert Nickson’s mix of Stoneface & Terminal ‘Lose My Need’, which embarks Disc 1. The first of many unique Mowatt moments throughout, it’s followed by ‘Arpeggiator Shards’ – an elegiac gathering of Solarstone’s ‘Shards’ and his recreation of Jean-Michel Jarre’s ‘Arpeggiator’. ‘The Breeze’ follows, heralding the return of EVE Records legend Pablo Gargano, as well as ‘Moontribe’ – Alucard’s first from his 2024-upcoming album. As it reaches its cruising midpoint, Rich feeds Siskin’s hypnotic take on Conductor and The Cowboy classic ‘Feeling This Way’ into the mix, before Sherpa’s remake of Cass & Slide’s ‘Perception’ further swirls its atmospherics.

Marking his 16th release on a Solarstone label, Disc 2 overtures with Allende’s ‘Fading Light’. Flow established, it calls back trance purists like Temple One, with his bliss-fest ‘As The Sun Breaks’ and Greg Murray’s reformation of ‘PTV8’ highlight ‘Sun is High’ from Stoby & G Coulter. Those more forceful vibes keep rolling as Factoria elevates one of Rich’s favourite PTR outings, Bjorn Akesson’s ‘Language’.

Drizzly Music legend Wavetraxx commences Disc.3 with his latest, ‘Million Miles To Go, before Solarstone’s newest collaboratory alias 892NOW makes its debut felt … with ‘Felt’. Super-Frog Saves Tokyo returns with ‘Reactivate’ (one of his three showings on PTV.10), before Robert Nickson supplies it ‘Transcend’. Inspired by the eponymous 1987 scifi movie, ‘Running Man’, young buck LostLegend momentarily summons some tonal shadow, before John Askew’s Dawn Mix of ‘Push It’ ramps it back up. Pure Trance Vol.10 concludes its epic 45 track, 240-minute run with a neat loop-back to its SF&T’s ‘Lose My Need’ start point.

With PTV10, it was never the ‘when’ … but the ‘how’ that mattered. A fittingly fine landmark release, you can find ‘Solarstone Presents Pure Trance V10’ wherever good music is sold or streamed from Nov 3.

PURE TRANCE – HOW IT HAPPENED: By this point Pure Trance means much to many, but to Solarstone it comes down to four simple words: ‘knowing your own mind …’ When the spectre of genre’s second popification rose in 2010, he decided it was do-or-die time … and pinned his Pure Trance colours to the mast.

Originally intended as a one-off ‘test-the-waters’ show, Pure Trance resonated big … and it resonated fast. Within 12 months it’d graduated to a themed series of globetrotting shows and latterly events and festival stage hostings. Its clarion call first mixcomp inspiring the direction of new producers and DJs, while influencing many an established name to keep the faith and stay the course. The Pure Trance Recordings label (currently approaching its 300th release) expanded from one to four imprints (adding Progressive, NEON and Breaks arms) and its weekly radio show is currently heading towards its 400th episode. That along with its now 10 albums (and a decade) propelled it from one artist’s rallying cry to a fully-fledged movement.

Pure Trance Volume 10 Tracklist:

Disc 1