Lanterns on the Lake

Drawing on the folk influences of Neil Young and the post-rock instrumental sounds of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Low, Lanterns on the Lake combine the brooding vocals of songwriter Hazel Wilde with textured instrumentation. The band’s first full-length release, Gracious Tide, Take Me Home, arrived in 2011. While maintaining a distinctively dreamy, delicate sound over the course of the decade, their lusher third album, Beings, saw release in 2015. Rising socio-political tensions were reflected on 2020’s Mercury Prize-nominated Spook the Herd, and motherhood informed 2023’s Phil Selway-co-produced Versions of Us. Founded in Newcastle in 2007, members of Lanterns on the Lake came together after playing in various bands on the local scene. Vocalist and guitarist Hazel Wilde was then engaged to Paul Gregory (guitars, electronics), and both were in a group with drummer Oliver Ketteringham. Wilde and violinist Sarah Kempwere old school friends, and brothers Brendan (bass) and Adam Sykes (guitar, vocals) completed the lineup. Plying their trade in a D.I.Y. fashion and on a small budget, they borrowed an 8-track recorder and set about creating their first two releases, the Starlight EP (2009) and Misfortunes & Minor Victories(2010), capturing the intimacy that was afforded to them by recording in their own homes and an abandoned house in Northumberland. They released their records with handmade sleeves and organized a series of gigs in obscure places, such as a boat house on the Tyne River and the highest pub in Britain (the Tan Hill Inn), garnering a strong following in the process.