After two decades away from the business musicians Simon Raymonde and Ritchie Thomas are making a return to the stage with Lost Horizons.
Set for Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Wednesday April 25 dream pop group Lost Horizons will be supported by the melodic sounds of beach pop/rock outfit Penelope Isles.
Whilst planning for his record company’s 20th Anniversary Simon, founder of Bella Union, realised he’d been missing something in his own musical journey.
He revealed: “I like my own company and I like being excited at 2am in my little underground cave, or with my headphones on at home. It’s a new thing for me.
“But after spending the last two decades helping other bands realise some of their dreams, I started to plan for our 20th anniversary and noticed that while I was proud of the label and how far we’d come, I felt something was missing.”
Last October through Lost Horizons Simon and Ritchie, who have been friends since the eighties, released their debut album Ojalá.
The album also incorporates a strong cast of guest singers, some of which are signed to Bella Union, such as Marissa Nadler, former Midlake frontman Tim Smith, Cameron Neal (Horse Thief). Others are long-time favourites of Simon’s (Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit and Ghostpoet) amongst others.
Before he founded Bella Union, Simon was the bassist of the revered Cocteau Twins. As well as that he and Ritchie made a number of demos together in the eighties but ended up pursuing other projects.
Ritchie said: “The business side of music became too painful. I had, too much love for music that wasn’t returned. But Simon has music in his heart and soul, he’s extremely talented, and I wanted to get him making music again. And when the idea of jamming together came up again, I got really excited, which I hadn’t felt about music in ages.”
Tickets for Lost Horizons on Wednesday April 25 at Limelight2, Belfast are £15 and available from www.limelightbelfast.com,