Stars of the Lid have become something of a leading protagonist in the now celebrated Kranky Records movement.

That is to say they excel at delivering the kind of refined, evocative, classical ambient drone that turns even the most mundane everyday tasks into meditative moments of startling and rarefied beauty.

The term ‘cinematic’ is all too often applied to music undeserving of the description, but where SOTL are concerned the term fails to accurately capture the shimmering expansiveness contained within these symphonic and electronic voids.

The continuously fluctuating moods pass by at a drifting pace, generating sprawling celestial spaces in which faint micro-melodies ring out, along with arcane drones, stark motifs and textural explorations that juxtapose tranquil atmospherics and uneasy moods. They play Cyprus Avenue on Thursday, November 22.

Dublin’s Somadrone supports. Recently seen in Cork twiddling his Moog with the Redneck Manifesto, Somadrone (Neil O’Connor) has been an active participant within the Irish experimental music scene for the best part of a decade now. A member of the Redneck Manifesto as well as fellow Dublin instrumental jazz-rock crew The Connect Four Orchestra, Somadrone is Neil’s electro-acoustic compositional outlet.

Vibraphone, harp, Theremin, Indian drone machines, analogue synths and strings are all utilised to create minute ambient-glitch suites, pulsing electro and lush string-ladden movements that draw to mind the likes of Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Eno and Steve Reich. His recent album, Of Pattern And Purpose is one of the finer Irish releases this year.

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