Comprising of five accomplished tracks, Dead Lake finds contemporary folk trio Mountainface contending with loss, memory and ultimately acceptance, in an effort to escape the depths of those long dark blues, touched upon by musical influences such as Nick Drake, Punch Brothers, Fleet Foxes and Jason Molina.

“What a great vocal, a voice like moonlight dancing off the top of trees” – Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales

One bitter April evening after the sun had turned in, Matt Youds (mandolin/vocals), Tom Winch (lead guitar/vocals) & David Weir (lead vocals/guitar) were planning on doing the same. A planned songwriting session had found them trawling the outskirts of Delamere Forest, when eventually somewhat disheartened and exhausted they stumbled upon Dead Lake. Finally they set to playing and the bare bones of Mirrors were formed.

Notes fading with the light, there was a strong sense of chasing the ghost of something but they were not quite sure what. Over the following months the songs came together and the spot became a place of refuge, with the music owing its sound to the varied eclectic tastes of the trio. Expressive and cavernous at its peak Dead Lake is shaded with asides that expose an ever present fragility, owing in part to the pastoral and confessional balladry of golden age singer/songwriters (Sandy Denny, Jackson C. Frank) and current contemporaries (Damien Jurado, John Smith).

Lyrically the songs seem to have come from someone with a head full of questions and not enough answers - buried in the pages of some Proust novel - forever lurching between past, present and future. Nostalgia, rosy sentimental memories and the wild abandon of dreams, all suggest perhaps it might be easier to get lost in one’s own self-mythology than facing up to the cold light of reality.

At times it seems Dead Lake’s deep waters are calling out for you to slip under. However as asserted in the overriding tenacity of their playing and the sweeping, hopeful narrative of Native Dust & The Chaser, Dead Lake does not represent this suppressive marshland rather it symbolises a place of pass over and forgiveness for the band. After years of willing, devising and solitariness, this is the sound of a band coming up for air.