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Current Bio for Forever or Never:
LAKE are an experimental-pop ensemble centered around the songwriting partnership of wife/husband duo Ashley Eriksson and Elijah Moore who met and formed in the progressive Cascadian college town of Olympia, Washington, in 2005. Since moving to the woods of Whidbey Island, Eriksson and Moore, they have only burrowed deeper into this lifestyle, concentrating on their songwriting and art, enabled in part by musical contributions for the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. More than ten years on, LAKE's latest album, Forever Or Never, which is their eighth album, bookends the first decade of the group's take on the 1970s rock and pop idiom. Forever Or Never is a collection of humanistic songs that explore the complications of moral and spiritual being in a hostile world. Musically, LAKE are, as always, unparalleled in re-imagining and renewing the melodic language of 1970s soft-rock, (think Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, The Roches, Laura Nyro, etc), implementing jazz-chord voicings, memorable hooks and a wide palette of colorful, inventive instrumentation. Two other key Lake players are Andrew Dorsett and Mark "Markly" Morrison, (penman of "Work With What You Got" and "Push And Pull"). Both musicians joined LAKE at the beginning and have been itinerant contributors since, lacing LAKE's DNA with their funky musicianship and distinct songwriting. Embracing both digital and analog means, LAKE's music is a radiant creation, blending percussiveness and tonality, synthesized sounds and acoustic frequencies. They make music glow in the same light as their predecessors, like the collaborations of Eno and Byrne, or Joni Mitchell's exploratory middle-70s work. Several of Eriksson's songs from Forever Or Never expand Eriksson's predilection for narrative songwriting and unpretentious storytelling, drawing from local events. Moore on the other hand focuses less on narrative events than Eriksson, often meditating on the confining nature of culture and religion. The album was recorded with music engineer Nicholas Wilbur (Hungry Cloud Darkening) at his church-turned-studio dubbed The Unknown, which he shares with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones), also a contributor, (Elverum added guitar on "Gone Against The Wind"). Paul Benson (Hungry Cloud Darkening, Ever Ending Kicks) plays on most of the basic tracks. Karl Blau, who recorded and released LAKE's first album, played sax on "Over And Under". The album is dedicated to the late artist and musician Geneviève Castrée (Ô Paon, Woelv), who contributed backing vocals to "Magazine" and "Gone Against The Wind". |
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