There are songs that entertain, and there are songs that accompany you. Solstice Sun — the latest release from Buckinghamshire-based artist Nick Byrne, in collaboration with Gloucestershire songwriter Tom Symmonds — does the latter. It unfolds gently, like morning light through a window, guiding the listener through the emotional ebb and flow of life's seasons.
Though this is Nick’s single, it’s also a true meeting of artistic voices — two musicians blending distinct creative worlds into something both intimate and cinematic.
Nick Byrne: Finding Growth in Stillness
An Irish-Chilean singer-songwriter with over 385,000 combined streams, Nick Byrne has steadily built a name for himself through understated indie-folk marked by poetic lyricism and emotional clarity. Earlier tracks like Houses and Summer Rain earned comparisons to Novo Amor and Keaton Henson, and were praised for their quiet honesty and acoustic finesse.
But Solstice Sun signals a step forward. It's warmer, wider, more expansive — the kind of track that shows an artist growing into himself. This recent evolution is no coincidence. With the addition of Alex Baker (bass) and Andrew Lane (drums), Nick’s live band has brought new depth to his sound. And with each release, his work grows more layered without ever losing its emotional core.
In Solstice Sun, he leans into nature not as metaphor, but as companion — using its rhythms to reflect the inner landscape of memory, loss, healing, and renewal.
Tom Symmonds: A Voice Reawakened
Tom Symmonds brings a different kind of energy to the project — a quiet intensity born from years of songwriting, performance, and, at one point, creative silence. After releasing his debut EP I Don’t Know Where I’m Going, But I’m On My Way in 2023, Tom established himself as a musician with a rare gift: the ability to turn reflection into resonance.
A classically influenced multi-instrumentalist, Tom’s contributions to Solstice Sun include ambient synths, drum machine textures, and layered keys, creating an atmospheric bed for Nick’s voice and acoustic guitar to rest on. His musical style — shaped by a life that includes fatherhood, introspection, and artistic rebirth — brings emotional weight to the song’s quieter moments.
The creative relationship between the two began during the isolation of 2021, exchanging ideas remotely. What could have remained a casual exchange evolved into something far more intentional and emotionally charged.
“For me, songs about nature ground us,” Nick reflects. “They connect us to places, to memories — and to each other.”
A Song That Breathes
From its opening pulses of soft synth bass to its final crescendo of harmonies and strings, Solstice Sun is a track that moves like the earth itself: luminous, then shadowed, then luminous again. It’s structured to follow the arc of the year — from summer’s golden haze, through the slowing breath of autumn, into winter’s stillness, and finally toward the hope of spring.
One of the track’s most beautiful details is Nick’s use of the charango, a ten-string Andean instrument tied to his Chilean roots. Instead of strumming, he fingerpicks it like a harp, giving the chorus a crystalline shimmer that blends seamlessly with Sophia Bartlett’s violin.
At its heart, this is a song about emotional transition — not through grand statements, but through quiet truths. The kind you realize walking home at dusk. The kind that live in the spaces between words.
A Collaboration That Feels Like Conversation
Though their voices, instruments, and artistic backgrounds differ, Nick and Tom approach songwriting with the same intention: to make space for honesty. Their collaboration feels less like two styles merging and more like a conversation — one that started during a time of isolation, and bloomed into a work about returning. Returning to nature. Returning to memory. Returning to self.
Producer Jake Robbins (CUSP, Weird Milk) brings it all together with subtlety, allowing each instrument and voice to breathe without ever competing. The result is a track that holds you gently — neither rushed nor restrained.
Conclusion
Solstice Sun is not just a seasonal metaphor. It’s a meditation on what it means to be human in the quiet moments. It’s a song that offers companionship through transition — a soft reassurance that even after the longest winter, the light returns.
For Nick Byrne, it’s a clear artistic breakthrough — one that expands his sonic world without losing the heart that made his earlier work so affecting.
For Tom Symmonds, it’s a continuation of a creative reawakening — proof that some of the most moving music is born not from certainty, but from stillness, surrender, and trust.
Together, they’ve created something rare:
A song that listens back.
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