Solstice Coil: prog rock from Israel

Solstice Coil first emerged into the world in the opening of 2001, when founding members Shir Deutch and Guy Matityahu first met at Guy's apartment, after meeting on a chat room at a stroke of chance. After establishing a shared musical language, they scanned the musician forums for guitarists and found the younger yet much taller, Opher Vishnia. By the end of the year, drummer Uri Goldberg joined the band, and the first lineup of Solstice Coil was complete. Under the name "Solstice", the band went on stage for the very first time on the 23rd of February 2002 at the 13th night club in Ramat Hasharon.

A year later, the band premiered their first Radiohead tribute show, after adding keyboard player, Shai Yallin. The Radiohead tributes were a tremendous success, and contributed to both the band's experience and the number of their audience crowd. Solstice ended their Radiohead tribute tour on September of 2003 in order to clear the path for new original material. Due to new influences brought to the band by Shai Yallin, as well as a general growing interest in progressive rock, Solstice's musical style began to evolve from the basic starting point of alternative rock, into a more mature and insightful hybrid of genres, with a general hunger for pushing the boundaries and exploring new sonic scopes.

"Confined", the band's first professionally record song, was released on the 10th of January 2004 as a demo single. The song was recorded and mixed at the 'Leibo Studios' and was then released to various internet web sites, such as the Israeli "New Stage" and the American "GarageBand". On these web sites the band discovered yet another band titled 'Solstice', and as a result decided to change their name to 'Solstice Coil'.

The "Deep Child" demo single was released on the 18th of April 2004. All the instruments, except for drums (recorded at the personal studio of Uri's drums teacher and close friend Oren Avisar), were recorded at Shai's home studio, where he edited and mixed the song as well. Deep Child received great recognition on the internet, convincing the band to continue working with Shai as producer.

As the band's repertoire continued to grow, the band decided to start work on a six song demo, containing two of the earlier songs recorded, along with Accidents, Selling Smoke, Even Poets Die and Anyone Can Be (A Porn Star). Drums were recorded at the new "Groove" studio in Hod Ha'sharon. The first two were released online and received excellent reviews, making Solstice Coil a name to be recognized.

Uri, dissatisfied with the results of the drum track for one of the songs, demanded it would be recorded again and so it was, at "Savion" studios in Beit Hanan. That, along with Shai's growing expertise in the world of producing, convinced the band to make a full go and release an official self-effort studio album.

In the middle of 2004 the band joined MISC, an organization that promotes Israeli bands creating music in the English language. The band started performing at the "Patiphone" club and on "MISC Live" events at the "Jah-Pan" club. Those shows led to even more shows and it seemed that things were picking up pace.

After a year of working on new material, performing and recording, Guy decided to finally call it quits. Shortly after, the experienced bass virtuoso, Diego Olschansky, was incorporated into the band.

From that point on, things were starting to shine brightly as Diego's precise playing has given the band a new and sharp edge. All vocals were rerecorded, demonstrating amazing improvement, thanks to the help of Erez Dargatski, owner and technician of "Savion". Shai was working overtime, mixing and editing, until the album was ready to everyone's satisfaction. It was then mastered by Tali Cuts, a well-known figure in the Israel musical production field. Opher labored on the cover design, which included a booklet containing a graphic novel that relates to the theme of the album. Finally, after two years of hard work, "A Prescription for Paper Cuts" was born. A complete artistic achievement, portraying the band's uncompromising vision. The album was released on the 21st of September and to mark the occasion, celebrated in a special concert at the 'Barby' club on the 1s0t of October, where the latest addition to the band, Aaron Lieber, from fellow band, Behind the Sun, was revealed.

A Prescription for Paper Cuts received great reviews both locally and internationally. It was named album of the month on German web site "Babyblaue" and the Brazilian internet zine "Progressive Rock & Progressive Metal" on December 2005. Photosensitivity, the opening track of the album, participated in the progressive rock contest of Garageband and managed to climb up to the Top 5 and Shir was interviewed by Jean-Luc Smets for the Belgian music magazine, "Prog Resiste".

The band is scheduled to tour Europe during October-November of 2006.

More info at http://www.solstice.co.il/ and www.myspace.com/solsticecoil