Last Harbour

Event information

LAST HARBOUR - www.lastharbour.co.uk

“With their gothic archness and deathly strings, Last Harbour offer chilly, semi- orchestral comforts from the same tangled patch of briar as The Bad Seeds and Tindersticks.” - UNCUT

“Rich and foreboding, tracing a thread back to the post-industrial landscapes of Joy Division.” - DROWNED IN SOUND

Based in Manchester, Last Harbour are an expansive collective playing “swooning dustbowl baroque” (Plan B) that is “rich and foreboding” (Drowned in Sound) . From dusty laments to doom- filled rock, from starkly beautiful duets to drifting clouds of looped noise, the only claims they make for their music are that it is honest and heartfelt.

Their new album ' Your Heart, It Carries The Sound ' was written in isolation in a small Northumbrian cottage in October 2010 and recorded in April 2011 in St Margaret's Church, Manchester. The songs are recorded almost entirely live, with producer Sam Lench employing the church as a soundstage. His approach carefully uses the architecture of the building to sculpt and shape the music, creating a sense of the band within the space.

This new album sees a different approach from their previous album ' Volo ' (2010) , a dense, textured album co-produced by Richard Formby (best known for his recent work with Wild Beasts). For ' Your Heart, It Carries The Sound ', the band stripped back the arrangements and placed a mature, more direct concentration at the core of each song. The confident, intimate vocal of K Craig is at the centre, the instrumentation is sparser, and the band's line-up has changed with piano, tenor guitar, heavily-processed guitar effects and organ to the fore. The addition of vintage analogue synths and waves of natural reverb give ' Your Heart, It Carries The Sound ' a timeless, ephemeral aspect.