LORNA originally started out in 1997 as a solo venture for Nottingham based vocalist/guitarist Mark Rolfe but have subsequently swollen to a 3 boy, 1 girl quartet. Currently signed to the Minneapolis record label Words On Music, also home to Coastal, the album ‘Static Patterns and Souvenirs’ is their first output on this label, a new home for a group whose previous 4 releases, including one album ‘This Time, Each Year’ were all on different record labels and stretch back as far as 2001’s ‘Never Grow Old’ EP.
Aside from throwing down a gauntlet to record hunters and back cataloguists such nomadic traits seep into the music itself. Virtually all the songs, but in particular tracks like ‘Understanding Heavy Metal Parts I and II’, ‘The Last Mosquito Flight of Summer’ and ‘Illuminations’, provide instrumental excursions of real quality that lift LORNA’s sound onto a higher and more rewarding level than my early expectations credited. I’ll blame the bleakness of the album’s cover for starting such preconceptions.
Whilst at times still offering a slow-burning minimalism in the cast of Low and their label-mates Coastal (e.g. ‘Homerun’, ‘The Swimmer’, ‘Be Forever’) the multi-instrumental talents of the band are engagingly explored on the album, elevating LORNA’s achievements by introducing an alt-chamber orchestra quality and revealing a strong empathy with the broken-hearted Americana of Lambchop, The Czars and Mercury Rev. ‘Remarkable Things’ is an exceptional example of this insightful experimentation unravelling its beautifully and adeptly threaded charms with some gloriously refined banjo and pedal steel.
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Of equal merit is the strong pop sensibility that continually pushes at and ultimately breaks the limits of their influences. From studying the personalities of Low et al. LORNA have set out to nurture something different, a musical prodigy who retains the quiet sensitivity and brooding innocence of its predecessors but also delights by sharing with you richer and more diverse character traits that are equally appealing and enlightening. ‘He Dreams of Spaceships’ is the perfect example of this: a song about Laika the Soviet’s first dog in space that – as the band bio rightly observes – captures the pop artfulness and playfulness of Belle and Sebastian.
LORNA are a rare breed of band, one that skilfully masters the talent of articulating musical ideas and creative urges within the discipline of song-writing and the crafted ambition of neo-classical pop engineers.
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