After a five-year hiatus since his acclaimed album island, trance visionary Solarstone (Rich Mowatt) returns with ‘Innermost’, his ninth studio album—out now across all major platforms.
Far from a traditional club record, Innermost delves deep into personal transformation, life-altering moments, and emotional resonance. Over the past few years, Rich has taken on many new roles—becoming a husband, a father again, and witnessing his first child grow into adulthood. These life shifts shape the core of Innermost, resulting in a work that’s as vulnerable as it is masterfully composed.
“Good music demands that you push yourself—and often take risks,” says Mowatt. “Innermost isn’t a club record by design; it’s a deeply reflective one. It’s my most honest and polished album to date. Five years in the making—no excuses!”
Opening with Shivelight—a track named after the ethereal beams of sunlight filtering through trees—the album sets a cinematic tone that lingers throughout. Tracks like Your Sacrifice, featuring Clara Yates, explore themes of familial love and loss, while Over the Mountains draws from lullabies Mowatt once sang to his son, echoing emotional motifs reminiscent of Seven Cities.
The album pays homage to the golden age of progressive house in Dream Sequence and Sonata, the latter described as a Chopin-inspired piece filtered through the lens of EyeQ and Harthouse-era electronics. The hauntingly beautiful Star featuring Susie Ledge was inspired by Sabres of Paradise and early Enya, while the title track Innermost required over a week just to perfect its evocative piano melody—capturing five years of emotional complexity in one composition.
Other highlights include Underground, a profound exploration of depression with hopeful vocals by Evan Henzi, and Boy, an ode to Rich’s firstborn, swimming in nostalgia and warm instrumentation. The album concludes with Complicated—a meditation on new love and the unpredictability of life’s timing.
Innermost is an album that doesn’t just ask to be heard—it asks to be felt. Out Now — June 12
