Lanterna - Hidden Drives LP, CD and Download

Badman is very pleased to announce the release of Champaign, Illinois’ Lanterna's seventh album, Hidden Drives.  The new album is guitarist Henry Frayne's latest offering as Lanterna, a mostly instrumental side project, begun some thirty years ago.  Since the '80s, Frayne has played in Champaign bands such as The Syndicate, ¡Ack-Ack!, Area, and The Moon Seven Times.  The past experiences in these bands influenced every song on the forthcoming Hidden Drives as it had with most previous Lanterna albums.  

For CD orders, please choose "CD shipping" in the cart. For LP orders, please choose "LP shipping" in the cart.  The vinyl LP is on blue translucent colored vinyl!  Shipping to the U.S. is included in the price of the LP.  For International LP orders, please choose "International LP shipping" at checkout. 

Check out the video for the song "Hidden Drives" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DV-U3Pqi5Y

"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 for the rest of the song, because in those days, he says, “Surely I’d remember how the rest of it goes.” The resulting song is atmospheric and dreamy. Complemented by sepia-toned footage of the old American West, the song carries a sense of nostalgia as Frayne strums along peacefully. The drone footage also adds to the mood of the song, conveying a sense that you are floating over some long gone landscape and this is your soundtrack. As with much of Frayne’s music, this is a song about building sonic layers to ultimately create a mood, and he does that wonderfully with this track." - Glide Magazine

"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 back roads and across desert plains, open to the sky and gathering light like a sun-catcher." - John Diliberto, Echoes radio

“From the heartland comes a CD with the beat of slowly waving fields of wheat. Henry Frayne is Lanterna, with the addition of a percussionist. [Sands] is filled with instrumental guitar tunes that are dreamy and evocative. - David Greenberger, NPR

As Lanterna, Frayne has been producing a consistent strain of guitar-based instrumental music for several years now-- one that largely ignores any apparent influence from the past 10 years. – Liam Singer, Pitchfork

"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."  

Twenty years ago when Lanterna began working with Badman, Frayne enlisted the help of producer/engineer/guitarist Mike Brosco at Waterworks Audio in Champaign, as well as Chicagoan Eric Gebow (Blue Man Group, Mouth Captain) who would drum on Lanterna's Highways, Desert Ocean, and tour the US, and Greece.  In 2018 with some of the songs on Hidden Drives already fleshed out with guitar, synthesizer, and bass, Eric Gebow traveled down from Chicago to Waterworks to lay down drums for half of the album's 10 songs.  Frayne says, "As the day played out Eric identified 'Redwoods' as a song that needed drums.  Being a song with modulated, looping guitar figures, I hadn't thought that drums could be integrated without a blinking bank of computers.  Mike Brosco brought up the tracks for 'Redwoods' and Eric performed the lush, driving beat that now defines the song.  For me it evokes the feeling of driving down tree lined streets after a summer rain shower."

For five of the songs on Hidden Drives, Frayne asked Mike Brosco to "have some fun" and manipulate the tracks to create five additional remixes to bring the album to a total of 15 tracks.  "This gives one a chance to enjoy those instrumental parts that might otherwise go unnoticed on the more upbeat songs.  As a listener, I wish more bands would do this," adds Frayne. 

A review of Hidden Drives from The Big Takeover:

“Chagrin Boulevard,” for example, mixes lush acoustic strumming with ringing peals of electric guitar, boasting a melody strong enough that it could support lyrics, though it doesn’t need them. “Cupola” adds drummer Eric Gebow for some rock drive, as Frayne makes like the Edge gone shoegaze, while “Maine 262” evokes sensual dream pop with heavily processed guitar in place of cooing vocals. The stunning “Redwoods,” meanwhile, enjoys the drive Gebow’s kit work gives its spiraling guitar figures, while the elegiac “Muscle Ridge” adds some languid pop melody that understands exactly how to arrive without travelling. “Nice” and the title track add a distinct folk vibe, and sound like they could be translated to solo acoustic fingerpicked pieces with little loss of vision. “Flag” simply luxuriates in the wonder of gently strummed chords through what sounds like a bank of delay pedals." - Michael Toland

The LP version was specifically mastered for vinyl, preserving the highest quality recording pressed for vinyl.  It does not come with a free digital download card. 

The digital download is a high-quailty 320mbps MP3. 

Unfortunately, due to new VAT regulations, we are not currently shipping to the UK.  But, UK residents can order the download through this site and purchase the CD and LP from their local record shop. 

Lanterna.tv