Customer Reviews

Lanterna (Candescence)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I heard a snippet of Lanterna's "Elm Street" on NPR and pursued this CD as a result of what I've heard. Now that I've received it and listened, I know I'll be getting their other two releases. Like other reviewers, I find it hard to put a name to what exactly to call this music. It's ambient, yes, but with a bit of an edge to it. I'm not particularly literate in the lexicon of music, and really, I'd rather talk about how the music makes me feel. Of course this is highly subjective, but I feel both relaxed and focused by this music. It's like a good long supper with wine and candlelight and good food with an intelligent person you're really interested in - there are different moods and rhythms and topics, but overall the feeling is one of being at ease and also very *engaged*. I find it more than a little sexy. I reccommend this CD highly and hope you'll find it enjoyable, as I do.

This work really transcends whatever label one wishes to put on it. Equally at home in collections of New Age, goth, or ambient music, Lanterna is a simply beautiful collection of songs suitable for candle-lit latenights, rainy Saturdays, dinnertime, bathtime, or bedtime. The album's strong point is its continuity and cohesiveness: the songs meld together like an epic poem. The downside of this, of course, is that the songs individual character may easily escape; but over time, careful listeners are sure to find a very personal favorite.

Lanterna is must for any CD collection. The first track "Silent Hills" is as haunting as it is beutiful. Like his other CDs (all of which are really good)the music expands and goes in many directions that are unexpected and rewarding.

This instrumental rock music evokes sweeping landscapes, soaring vistas and ethereal galaxies. It's not rock in the raucous sense. The backbeats and guitar riffs make "surf rock" seem loud. It's a great soundtrack for a moody road trip.

Now, that you're strapped in with Henry Frayne(who is Lanterna), the pilot for this guitar-driven plane ride, relax and let your inner mind see. Just up ahead, "Silent Hills", filled with haunting riffs and ambient washes, pass underneath as you bank out over the water. Henry then hums along with his guitar. It's a nice ditty--"Down By The Seine." Your motor rocks on with a "Turbine" power that allows the backing percussion to underlie a good power-rock approach over some(what sounds like)crashing beach surf.

Henry's next piece, "1985", allows for your backward glance at a moment that marked something personal, surreal almost, as it sounds out to you within your view seat. Up ahead come three songs: "Dark Springs", "Passage",and "Collossus" which billow arround you as the audio flight takes you through ever darker, grey-white clouds that culminate in gorgeous aural turbulence. You pass through six more tunes--horizontal on your way-- as your pilot soars above the open ocean, with its white-tipped froths and deep-green liquid gullies far below. Suddenly, you emerge into ethereal "Slides" and "Dawn" as you seem to be far above cold blue waters filled with giant cetaceans, busily sounding sonar calls to their companions in the dusky evening.

At last, "Puerto de Luna" quietly sets you down on a moonlight-dappled runway. All that remains is the memory of an astral voyage piloted by the adept fingers of the ethereal rock guitarist who bills himself as "Lanterna." And, if you're like this frequent passenger, you will immediately book passage on all his other sonic soundscapes listed on Amazon.

From [...]:
"Lanterna is a project put together by Champaign, Illinois mainstay Henry Frayne. This gorgeous CD is filled with delay-drenched guitars, reverb-y drums, and sparse singing (the record is predominantly instrumental). These beautiful soundscapes, rich in moody guitars and dreamy, thoughtful rhythms, define Lanterna's sound; somewhat akin to Bruce Licher's Scenic or Ennio Morricone's spaghetti westerns... an ideal soundtrack for a road movie in slow motion or a drive across the desert...

This special project is packaged in a beautiful, letterpress discfolio designed by Independent Project Press."

TRACK LISTING:
Silent Hills
Down By The Seine
Turbine No.
1985
Dark
Passage
Colossus Dawn
End Of The Tunnel
Bells/Falling
Down By The Seine (Drowning)
Ether Net
No. 7 Galerie Des Anciennes
Dragon Season
Spring Achieving Oneness
Slides
Puerto De Luna

Cleanly produced guitar-dreamscapes float best when arpeggio-accentuated, chugging along noticeably worse when things speed to mid-tempo grinders. Aside from some of that dead-ish weight, the disc tends to sound a little electronically unsure in its second half, with aimless meanderings that should have brought Lanterna down to an average album. But Frayne's involving atmospherics earlier on make this just over worthwhile.

this Lanterna CD is, without a doubt, definitely one of the most wonderful discoveries, musically, i've made in eons!!!

i'm a total sucker for true power pop, that has phenomenol hooks in the music, a singer (or singers) that have great voices, who harmonize with other members of the band & who stick in just the right amout of oooooooh's & aaaaaah's or who have things like handclaps (or something similar) in their material.....for THIS release, prepare for some of THE BEST EVER power pop i know to exist!!!

maybe they weren't influenced by any of the following artists/bands but their stuff reminds me of the following: emitt rhodes, the hollies (evolution & butterfly period), three hour tour (for the fact that there are just soooooo many tracks that have irresistible vocals/harmonies & all of the little things that make a mega-loud, power pop band be just one step away from being full-fledged hard rock!!!), the posies (the really trippy, heavy, head-music they do that you immediately start grooving to within just a few seconds of one of their songs), outrageous cherry (MOST DEFINITELY & W/O QUESTION!!!!!), the flaming lips (the earlier their releases, the better & reason(s) WHY i ALSO put them onto this list--taken off of their first 3 OR 4 full-length releases, there are truely some mind-bending, twisted, psychedelic moments), the green pajamas, the vandalias, &...i'll even go as far as saying...if you are a fan of shoes (thinkin' 'bout the way that they can/could, play/write songs that were, in one hand, songs with scortching guitars & a killer rhythm section...&, in the other hand, you have/got some of THE MOST PERFECT vocal harmonies, with the sounds of things like tambourines or maracas being played along with the drums & bass (thus making the songs, that have such things going on in them, just THAT MUCH GROOOOOVIER!!!), drop city (the psych/trippy stuff they do/have done &, as well as, the stuff they have done that is literally, 100% PURE, power pop, w/the emphasis on 'power'!!!),

this is 'dream(y) pop' music at it's very best!!!--
lots of 'bah bah bah bah bah haaaaah's &/or 'ooooooh ooooooh aaaaaahhh's, similar to 'good vibrations' by the beach boys or tracks by the turtles!!!.....

if you want/are looking for something similar to the things listed above, look no further!!!...Lanterna delivers...&, in a reeeeally BIGGGGG way!!!

A gift for my friend, whom enjoyed it thoroughly!