Taken from the album ‘Beings’. The cover art of Newcastle indie-rock quartet Lanterns On The Lake’s new album, is at once soothing and unnerving. Warm, filtered light bathes an arid mountain-scape, and whimsical will-o-the-wisps bubble around the edges of the image. Yet, in the middle of the photograph, there sits an unadorned black heptagon, like a scorch mark. It’s a striking image.
“Through The Cellar Door,” the album’s single, also cuts through brightness with sheaths of dark shadows. Even the song’s title implies the excavation of hidden spaces and diving into what can’t be seen. The opening guitar line is inviting — the bountiful pauses between its wavering notes creating open space and intrigue, clearly implying that the song is about searching. If the earthbound guitars are a persistent spirit of the quest, Hazel Wilde’s reverb-adorned vocals are wandering and airborne, adding to the effect. Both are a means to finding, and as the song picks up intensity, it melts into distortion, never chaos, pushing against limits and blurring the edges.
The mysterious darkness on the cover of Beings has the same effect. Out November 13th on Bella Union.
LANTERNS ON THE LAKE are
HAZEL WILDE – Vocals/ Guitar/ Piano, PAUL GREGORY – Guitar/ Production, OL KETTERINGHAM – Drums/ Piano, BOB ALLAN – Bass, Additional/ associated members:ANGELA CHAN – Violin/ Cello/ Viola
The Fat Angel Sings 