"The statue of the hunter is lost at sea"

Rusted Rail is proud to announce the release of "The Statue of The Hunter is Lost at Sea", the third album by Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon. This album represents Phantom Dog's first new material since 2010's critically-acclaimed "The Trees, The Sea in a Lunar Stream". Scratching an almost seven year itch, the duo of Aaron Hurley and Scott McLaughlin have arguably defined a new form of musical struggle - the "difficult third album" syndrome. It's a battle they have won and it was worth the wait. This nine-track album finds Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon exploring sonic territory inhabited by rivers, snowy graveyard trees and dark nights of the soul. These velvet lullabies meld avant-folk moves with a contemporary-composition sensibility, suggesting hazy transmissions over a fog-shrouded lake, wading in the same brackish waters as Bark Psychosis and latter-era Talk Talk.

Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon have delivered a selection of songs so intimate it sometimes feels like eavesdropping on a late night conversation, as the duo and their collaborators delve into impressionistic interludes and glimmering nocturnal musings, with Hurley's high, plaintive voice floating atop a shimmering cloud of haunting drones and lifted by transcendent codas. Along the way there are traces of rural psychedelia with one eye on the sky, as the album veers from misty acoustic confessionals to full-on shoegaze blowouts - this is the sound of a band at peak performance. Shindig Magazine had to invent a new genre to describe their previous album - they called it "Folk-Gaze" - and it is this confluence of songs straddling sonic space somewhere between handmade and high-fidelity, between late night and the break of dawn, that is the high watermark of "The Statue of The Hunter is Lost at Sea".

"The Statue of the Hunter is Lost at Sea" can now be ordered from the Rusted Rail Bandcamp


Special Offer! Buy Both 'The Shadow of the Hunter is Lost at Sea' and 'The Trees, The Sea in a Lunar Stream' CD Albums by Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon for just €15 (plus post and packaging) .


"The trees, the sea in a lunar stream"


It is with great pleasure that Rusted Rail can announce the release of "The Trees, The Sea in a Lunar Stream" by Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon. An Irish duo made up of Aaron Hurley and Scott McLaughlin, their music combines many elements from avant-folk to shoegaze, modern composition to indie rock. Recorded in England and Ireland, this album combines avant singer-songwriter moves with a contemporary classical sensibility as songwriter Hurley and multi-instrumentalist McLaughlin conjure music from vocals, guitars, piano, cello, glockenspiel, bass guitar, melodica, double bass, harpsichord, vibraphone and electronics. An ambitious recording with many experimental textures, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon veer from rustic folk to glacial atmospheres, from haunted songs to spooked shoegaze soundscapes. The album is housed in a hand-assembled and hand stamped recycled card sleeve.


"Through a Forest Only"


Never staying in the same place for very long in either name, geography or style, yet consistently evolving and engaging, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon have amped up their acoustic aesthetic, plugged into the grid and entered a new sound world featuring live percussion, sonic sorcery, and plaintive singing wrapped in warm cello and vibraphonic action. Their "Through A Forest Only" extended player for Rusted Rail features twenty minutes of delicate, driven, dreamy and haunted hymns on a 3 inch EP in a handmade sleeve.