briankrumm
New Member
Posting here to share the news that my friend Henry Frayne is releasing a new album, his 7th with Lanterna. Full disclosure: I sometimes play in the live lineup of Lanterna. Cheers, BK
Lanterna Hidden Drives
Available June 4, 2021, on Badman Recording Co. (Lanterna - Hidden Drives LP, CD and Download (Pre-Order))
“Lanterna does something that’s not easy. His songs are heavily atmospheric but instead of the enclosed, immersive feel that sound often yields, his compositions gallop along pastoral backroads and across desert plains, open to the sky and gathering light like a suncatcher.” —John Diliberto, Echoes
Champaign, Illinois’ Lanterna are pleased to announce the release of their seventh album, Hidden Drives, available June 4, 2021, on Badman Recording Co. The new album is guitarist Henry Frayne’s latest offering as Lanterna, which began as an instrumental side project some 30 years ago. Since the 1980s, Frayne has played in Champaign bands such as Lodestone Destiny, The Syndicate, ¡Ack-Ack!, Area and The Moon Seven Times. The past experiences in those bands influenced every song on Hidden Drives as it has with previous Lanterna albums.
The Story Behind Hidden Drives
For more than 30 years, Frayne has maintained a notebook and series of cassette tapes filled with song ideas. The songs that constitute Hidden Drives are ideas that might have needed a bit more time, give or take a decade, to come together. For example, “Maine 262” needed a final section, which came about with Frayne accidentally striking an open low E string while trying a new chord pattern. The acoustic-guitar-driven “Chagrin Boulevard” existed as a fragment at the end of a cassette tape for many years, with Frayne relying on his memory to finish the song. Lastly, the title track was just three lush chords played on an old analog synth. Frayne says, “I had to figure out how to arrange the chords on the guitar to retain those ringing notes and to imagine the twists and turns of the rest of the song.”
“Hidden Drives features more electric guitar and synthesizer than previous efforts,” explains Frayne, and he adds, “Most of the songs were written on an old Gibson SG, with or without cascading digital echoes suggesting additional harmonies and melody lines.”
As with 2015’s Backyards, Hidden Drives was pondered and formulated by Frayne while traveling between Illinois and his adopted second home state of Maine. One winding stretch of backroads in Knox County, Maine, called “Buttermilk Lane,” sports an inordinate number of twists and turns and hidden driveways with signs warning of HIDDEN DRIVES. It only took a few summers to realize that a perfect album title was literally flashing by around every turn.
Lanterna Hidden Drives
photography by Kevin Salemme, design by Bruce Licher’
Lanterna Hidden Drives
Available June 4, 2021, on Badman Recording Co. (Lanterna - Hidden Drives LP, CD and Download (Pre-Order))
“Lanterna does something that’s not easy. His songs are heavily atmospheric but instead of the enclosed, immersive feel that sound often yields, his compositions gallop along pastoral backroads and across desert plains, open to the sky and gathering light like a suncatcher.” —John Diliberto, Echoes
Champaign, Illinois’ Lanterna are pleased to announce the release of their seventh album, Hidden Drives, available June 4, 2021, on Badman Recording Co. The new album is guitarist Henry Frayne’s latest offering as Lanterna, which began as an instrumental side project some 30 years ago. Since the 1980s, Frayne has played in Champaign bands such as Lodestone Destiny, The Syndicate, ¡Ack-Ack!, Area and The Moon Seven Times. The past experiences in those bands influenced every song on Hidden Drives as it has with previous Lanterna albums.
The Story Behind Hidden Drives
For more than 30 years, Frayne has maintained a notebook and series of cassette tapes filled with song ideas. The songs that constitute Hidden Drives are ideas that might have needed a bit more time, give or take a decade, to come together. For example, “Maine 262” needed a final section, which came about with Frayne accidentally striking an open low E string while trying a new chord pattern. The acoustic-guitar-driven “Chagrin Boulevard” existed as a fragment at the end of a cassette tape for many years, with Frayne relying on his memory to finish the song. Lastly, the title track was just three lush chords played on an old analog synth. Frayne says, “I had to figure out how to arrange the chords on the guitar to retain those ringing notes and to imagine the twists and turns of the rest of the song.”
“Hidden Drives features more electric guitar and synthesizer than previous efforts,” explains Frayne, and he adds, “Most of the songs were written on an old Gibson SG, with or without cascading digital echoes suggesting additional harmonies and melody lines.”
As with 2015’s Backyards, Hidden Drives was pondered and formulated by Frayne while traveling between Illinois and his adopted second home state of Maine. One winding stretch of backroads in Knox County, Maine, called “Buttermilk Lane,” sports an inordinate number of twists and turns and hidden driveways with signs warning of HIDDEN DRIVES. It only took a few summers to realize that a perfect album title was literally flashing by around every turn.
Lanterna Hidden Drivesphotography by Kevin Salemme, design by Bruce Licher’
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