Albion Solstice

Modern Cinematic Scoring, Rooted in Folk Tradition

Overview:
Albion Solstice from Spitfire Audio brings together the raw soul of folk traditions with the modern edge of cinematic scoring. Crafted over two years under the direction of Christian Henson, this expansive Kontakt-based toolkit is designed to transcend genre—bridging ancient musical heritage with today's scoring needs. Whether you're composing for film, TV, or games, Solstice delivers an immediate, emotionally resonant palette that's as inspiring to play as it is to produce with.

Key Features:

• Three-Part Structure:
• Solstice Orchestra: 10 pre-orchestrated folk-meets-cinematic ensembles plus soloist, covering strings, brass, winds, choirs, acoustic/electric guitars, percussion, mallets, and more.
• Cassette Orchestra: 150 eDNA presets made from 750 processed, tape-warped sources—think lo-fi folk noir meets analog FX.
• Drone Grid: An Evo Grid-based collection of endlessly morphing textures and evolving atmospheres derived from the main ensembles.

Instrument Highlights:

• Nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, Celtic fiddles, clàrsach (Celtic harp), harmonium.
• Electric and acoustic guitars, synths, bells, whistles, and analog FX chains.
• Unconventional ensemble groupings like The Blaggards (folk drones), The Generator Trio (electric guitars), and The Callers (brass/wind textures).

Performance & Expression:

• 235 articulations, including 78 string-specific ones.
• Motors (tempo-synced rhythmic performances), evolutions, drones, and textures.
• Expression and dynamics sliders for real-time shaping.
• Studio & Sound Design:
• Recorded at Castlesound Studios (Scotland).
• Broadcast-ready mix by engineer Jake Jackson.
• 3 mic positions + custom impulse response reverb.
• Deep eDNA engine integration for layering and FX in Cassette Orchestra.

Bonus Content:

The Visitor: 100 synth patches from vintage/modern gear like the Lyra 8, Juno 6, MS-20, and more, recorded in stereo with analog FX chains.

NKS-ready for Native Instruments hardware integration.

Ideal For:

• Film, TV, and game composers.
• Ambient and experimental producers.
• Anyone looking for organic-meets-modern scoring tools with emotional depth.

There's magic in this library. It's inspiring to compose with and instantaneous to produce with. The sounds spring out of the box, with performances that absolutely drip with personality. It's an environment where you feel that you are collaboration with the performers and not simply playing samples.

Christian Henson - Composer & Co-Founder of Spitfire Audio

A celebration of un-notated traditions

Recorded at the legendary Castlesound Studios in Edinburgh, Scotland, Albion Solstice is an ultra-intimate and dynamic selection of uniquely workshopped ensembles, featuring highly specialised players and sound smiths from a cross-section of classical, folk, Celtic, Gaelic, and other traditions, mixed with modern instrumentation such as analog synthesisers, Eurorack modular, electric guitar textures, tuned percussion, and distinctive audio processing. This folk noir library is a deep wellspring of endless inspiration, stemming from the organic sounds of modern and heritage instruments from across the United Kingdom, treated, blended, and unleashed to create extraordinary soundworlds fit for modern scoring. Formed to be a vast and powerful scoring toolkit with everything you could need to create incredible cinematic tracks in one box.

The sounds in this NKS-compatible library are grouped into three distinct sections: The Solstice Orchestra, the organic core featuring 10 expertly curated ensembles and 1 solo instrument, The Cassette Orchestra with 750 tape-warped, affected organic sounds available for you to expand upon using the intuitive eDNA GUI, and The Drone Grid, an almost infinite pool of stunning and unique textural evolutions to offer composers never-ending inspiration.

By design, the Albion series offers you everything you need to create film scores, helping you instantly jump-start ideas with sounds that support the writing process, allowing you to move beyond the blank page. With Albion Solstice, the approach to re-contextualise folk and traditional instruments allows you to transcend genre, creating modern scores where anything is possible. Helmed by Spitfire Audio's co-founder Christian Henson, who expertly curated and workshopped each section over two years, Solstice is our boldest Albion yet.

The Solstice Orchestra

Featuring 10 ensembles and a soloist, 235 articulations, 78 of which are found in the two string sections, including legatos, The Solstice Orchestra is a collection of folk and contemporary instrument ensembles presented in an achingly honest and truthful light. The beating heart of Albion Solstice, these organic sounds are hand-selected by Christian Henson, working closely with a carefully selected group of players from the traditional music scenes in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Offering new, intimate, and sometimes provoking sounds imbued with raw emotion, evoking past, present, and future at once:

• The Solstice Vernacular.
• The Elders (Traditional Strings, Classic Strings, Solo Bass).
• The Callers (Brass & Winds).
• The Mystics (Whistles).
• The Blaggards (Band).
• The Hosts (Choir).
• The Generator Trio (Electric Guitars).
• The Gut Circle (Acoustic Guitars).
• The Nursery (Bells & Mallets).
• The Marauders (Percussion).

Discover strings, brass and woodwinds, a choir, percussion, whistles, synths, and guitars, presented in pre-orchestrated ensembles, featuring single hits, common and alternative techniques, motors (rhythmic performances that sync to your host tempo), evolutions, drones, textures and much more.

Introduce yourself to the lamenting performances of The Callers, a unique brass and woodwinds section featuring soprano sax, clarinet, tenor trombone, baritone sax, tuba, and contrabass clarinet. Create indie-like textures and tones with help from The Generator Trio, an ensemble of 2 electric guitars and electric bass, creating momentum with strummed, plucked, and e-bowed performances. The Blaggards bring a totally unique and useful grouping of drones and movements, an ensemble comprised of traditional folk instruments including accordions, bass harmonica, nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, harmonium, and clàrsach (Celtic harps), the folk core of the library — but we've made it cinematic. Compose with The Elders, a pair of string sections, the Classic Strings Octet offers a raw beauty featuring more common techniques, whereas the Traditional Strings Sextet provides more Celtic, Gaelic, and folk colours to their Classic counterparts.

The Cassette Orchestra

A cornucopia of creative sound, The Cassette Orchestra is an expansive set of 150 presets made from 750 sound sources from The Solstice Orchestra. Imperfect by design, the sounds are processed, mangled, and degraded by Christian Henson personally via numerous specially developed paths, including vintage cassette machines, analog tape delays, an epic Eurorack modular rig, and his enviable collection of guitar fx pedals. Go through the looking glass into Christian's world, exploring the impossible and creating the unimaginable. Tweak, customise and warp pairs of sounds using Spitfire Audio's eDNA engine, a creativity machine that allows you to make your own distinctive sounds from the sound sources.

An imagined history is the inspiration for The Cassette Orchestra. How would these instruments sound if the folk players of the past recorded to cassette via stompboxes? How would they have communicated their explorations of sound? Supporting this is the Eurorack modular and cassette communities, modern-day equivalents of oral traditions of the past, centered on the sharing of ideas, passing from person to person through modern communication channels on the internet, creating a new shared musical tradition and language.

The Visitor—an easter egg in a library of easter eggs—is an inspired group created with 100 different synthesizer sounds from Christian's vast collection. Vintage and modern instruments are represented, including the SOMA Lyra 8, Roland Juno 6, Jupiter 4, and Jupiter 6, Korg MS-20, Moog Prodigy and so many more. Going a step further, as is the Albion Solstice way, each synth was doubled in the recording or physically doubled (as in, two Lyra 8s, two Juno 6s) for a widescreen stereo effect. Additionally, all sounds were processed via an array of analog effects.

The Drone Grid

A layered, textural world, showcasing the movement and dynamics baked into the performances from these top-tier musicians, drawing from sources in The Blaggards (Band), The Elders (Strings), The Hosts (Choir), The Callers (Brass & Woodwinds), and others. The sounds within each section are presented as presets, or use the randomiser to create unique combinations from all sections. The Evos allow you to layer together sounds from each section of The Solstice Orchestra, including strings, accordion, nyckelharpa, and hurdy-gurdy, with each note on the keyboard representing a different drone Evo or a selected sound can be spread across the entire keyboard for focused inspiration. Pads and melodic lines are made possible via the full key range.

The Drone Grid serves as a great jumping-off point to move beyond the blank page or to enhance existing cues by blending in its complex textures. With the randomisation of each instrument, you can quickly write unique and unexpected ideas from the 48 presets. These are modern, inspiring sounds based on the rich heritage of folk instruments and performance styles, endlessly customisable to your needs.