Looking-Glass Lantern

May I be the second to suggest Looking-Glass Lantern for inclusion on your site under the sub-genre ‘Symphonic’?

Looking-Glass Lantern is the alter-ego of Graham Dunnington, a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a doctorate in Victorian Popular Music. To date, Graham has released two albums; ‘A Tapestry of Tales’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. Conceived as a pair, the albums are based on the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Colan Doyle, and are available as downloads from iTunes, Amazon, Aurovine, Spotify and other online retailers.

The music on ‘A Tapestry of Tales’ is uncompromisingly symphonic with classical influences; gentle, pastoral and charming. Graham plays all of the instruments, (vintage keyboards, harpsichord, classical guitar etc.), and sings. The only exception to this is the brief violin solo at the very start of Tapestry and the very end of Hound, (the sound of Holmes playing his Stradivarius back in Baker Street). The vocals are complementary rather than dominant.  The Hound of the Baskervilles is much more of a full-on concept album than its predecessor with recurring themes and an intensity that builds with the narrative.

This is music produced for the benefit of the listener rather than the performer; no concession is made to heaviness or rock ‘n roll, no indulgent soloing or 12-bar padding, no guest musicians showing off and no neo-prog doom and gloom. Instead, thoughtful, melodic story-telling with Hackett-era Genesis influences but with a much greater classical feel. 

 

Musical samples can be found at the web site; 

http://www.lookingglasslantern.co.uk

Very symphonic stuff, guys there should take notice, digital only release seems a preventing factor, anyway I'll keep a close eye in the case.

Yeah, pretty great work by Mr. progaholic, let me take some action then, I did not notice that a suggested genre was missing.

Hard to believe this is current. If I didn't already know I would have bet good money that it was produced in '80s. To me that's what makes it sound Neo but it is symphonic structure.

Keyboards to the wall. A bit of Yes and 80s Neo. Symph enough for my ears. Would fit in Neo too. A tough choice. A tentative yes for me in Symph.

Well, the Symphonic team was notified directly in their team thread in the collab zone by the leader of the Neo Prog team...and these are the two sub genre teams that this suggestion is most likely to be of interest to - so I guess it's not strictly necessary anymore to amend your topic title. It would however still be useful to casual visitors to the site if they could see "Looking-Glass Lantern (UK): Symphonic/Neo Prog" - or something to that effect in the topic tittle - it would indicate to them straight away the type of music they might expect to find if they were to carry on and actually read the thread. Full guidance on making suggestions can be found in Andy Webb's sticky at the top of this sub forum page.

Added to the Neo charts for further discussion.

progaholic wrote: With the greatest of respect, Pendragon couldn't hold a candle to Graham's recordings. The last pendragon album I had the misfortune of listening to was 'Not of this world' and what a tired recording that was; cliches holding hands. The latest IQ album showed that neo-prog is as dead as a dead parrot. Looking-Glass Lantern is as Symphonic as Focus or The Enid. All good wishes P

apps79 wrote: ...between conflicts, added to Neo: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=9120