Lines of Silence are an experimental kosmische band from the stranger reaches of North West England. LOS combine experimental analogue and digital electronics, motorik beats, improvisation and drone rock guitar explosions to create an immersive, expansive and contemporary take on psychedelia.
Formed in 2020 as a side project for David Little, LOS expanded into a loose collective of like-minded musicians, often playing improvised live sets. Lines of Silence is currently centred around a core duo of David Little and Manchester’s experimental electronics legend Dave Clarkson.
Following the release of the low-key drone album Terra/Aqua in 2020, LOS embarked on the Stations of the Sun project – releasing a set of long form soundscapes reflecting on our relationship with the natural world on the dates of the solstices and equinoxes 2020-21. An edited collection of these was released in 2022 as Stations of the Sun (Dimple Discs).
Jamming with Jean-Hervé Peron and Amaury Cambuzat from kraut-legends FaUSt at the base of the Pyrenees in 2023 re-energised LOS and set the band’s controls for different – and stranger – destinations. Following a support slot for Amaury’s I Feel Like a Bombed Cathedral project in late 2023, LOS finalised their third album, The Long Way Home (Analogue Trash, 2024) – an eclectic mix of motorik grooves, psychedelic rock, ambient passages and even occasional sprinklings of exotica and electronic jazz. Electronic Sound magazine described the album as, “a work that is wholly unpredictable and oddly comforting”.
David also hosts the Stranger Lights radio show on listen.camp: a bi-monthly deep dive into consciousness-altering sounds.
Reviews and testimonials
‘[The Long Way home is] a work that is both wholly unpredictable and also oddly comforting. The 21 minute long opus Withens Clough is the standout, with the hypnotic minimal bleeps and breathy pads that dominate its first section coming to to feel like the presence of an old friend the more you listen.’
Imogen Bebb, Electronic Sound Magazine – review of The Long Way LP
Stations of the Sun is superb … Beautiful atmosphere, beautiful sound…
Amaury Cambuzat, FaUSt, Ulan Bator, I Feel Like a Bombed Cathedral
‘The Long Way Home is a celebration of the twists and turns of the journey, the wrong turns and false starts as well as the joy in reaching the destination’. Thanks to its Autobahn-like sense of adventure, The Long Way Home could hardly be a better realisation of that thesis.
Poppy Bristow, Fresh On the Net review of The Long Way Home EP
‘The Long Way Home’ is a fascinating journey full of twists, turns and upheaval for those of a less than linear musical state of mind. Escapism is catered for and for once a dull week has met its comeuppance. So much so that I just didn’t want this trip from David Little and Dave Clarkson to end.
MP3Hugger review of The Long Way Home EP