Lanterna returns with the new album "Sands," featuring 10 crystalline instrumental tracks to help you make it through the rest of the year. For those of you familiar with them, there's more of the same wonderful driving guitars and somber musical soundscapes. Lanterna's song "B Minor" will be in the trailer for the new Spielberg directed film "Catch Me If You Can." Songs from Lanterna "Elm Street" have also been played on NPR.

"The Lanterna sound is ideal for a drive down some lonely highway late at night. It's a guitar sound that conjures up the soul of the night, not in a spooky way, but in portraying nighttime's quiet and empty spaces"
- Amazon.com

To be more specific: Here on earth, Henry Frayne, born in New York City and raised in Champaign, Illinois, issued the first Lanterna release in the early 90's as a handmade, limited edition cassette box. Label interest led to a Parasol Records release in a special letter-pressed package by Bruce Licher (of IPR, Independent Project Records and Scenic fame). Further interest led to Rykodisc issuing an album with a special photo-book in 1998 to glowing reviews and a swelling cult audience. In 2001, Badman released Lanterna's "Elm Street" which was met with 4 star reviews and supported by a US tour.

For "Sands," Frayne recorded rough tracks on his own over the course of several weeks, turning on the tape machine when the spirit moved him and going wherever an interesting chord would take him. Additionally, utilizing drum loops and adding vocals helped bring the songs' ethereal melodies to the forefront.

Apparently, in the right hands, a lot can happen to a man with a delay pedal, a wall of reverb, the passion to record a wide range of ambient space and a trusty guitar. At times, the music can seem to harken back to early psychedelic sonic washes a la Pink Floyd. Other times, there's a sense of traveling forward into the future where music has become the fully fleshed-out animal that current songs can only hint at. In any case, it is always intended to serve as a soundtrack to whatever movie your mind might conjure. No true genre need apply.