Description

Lost Horizons release their new album In Quiet Moments via Bella Union. The album features a stellar array of musical guests including John Grant, C Duncan, Marissa Nadler, Porridge Radio, Penelope Isles, Karen Peris (the innocence mission), Tim Smith (Midlake), Ren Harvieu and many more.

In 2017, Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas had both abstained from making music for 20 years until they united as Lost Horizons and released a stunning debut album, Ojalá the Spanish word for hopefully or God willing.

These days, we need hope more than ever, for a better world. Thomas said at the time. And this album has given me a lot of hope. To reconnect with music. And the hope for another Lost Horizons record! Thomas hopes had a mixed response.

On the plus side, the new Lost Horizons album In Quiet Moments is an even stronger successor to Ojalá with another distinguished cast of guest singers and a handful of supporting instrumentalists embellishing the core duos gorgeously free- flowing and loose-limbed blueprint that one writer astutely labelled, melancholy- delia.

On the minus side, any hope for a better world, as Earth continues to freefall toward political and social meltdown. Then, to make matters worse, as Raymonde and Thomas buckled down to create the improvised bedrock that Lost Horizons is built on, the formers mother died. At least Raymonde had a way to channel his grief. The way improvisation works, he says, its just whats going on with your body at the time, to let it out.

Raymonde (bass, guitar, keyboards, production) and Thomas (drums, occasional keys and guitar) forged ahead, creating 16 instrumental tracks to send to prospective guests. When he did, Raymonde suggested a guiding theme for their lyrics: death and rebirth. Of loved ones, of ideals, at an age when many artists that have inspired us are also dead, and the planet isnt far behind. But I also said, The most important part is to just do your own thing, and have fun.

Lost Horizons melancholy-delia also feels buoyed aloft by airy currents, informed in part by Raymonde and Thomas former respective bands: the legendary Cocteau Twins and Dif Juz. Their former bands were labelmates on 4AD in the mid-80s, which is how they first met.

I think In Quiet Moments is more in the direction of where were going, Thomas concludes. People have retreated into their lives and, in those quiet moments, reflected on the world, how we fit in and who we and trust. Maybe the next album will be about rebellion! But the road is long and winding. We just need to express ourselves in how we feel at the time.