Pale Lanterns

Pale Lanterns were founded in 2017 by singer-songwriter Darragh Donnelly. Winners of the Chordblossom Kickstart Prize of 2018 and already a long list of positive reviews from the Thin Air and others.

Acara Reviews - “A remarkable talent from the north”

The Thin Air - “One thing that Northern Ireland produces with astonishing prolificacy is high calibre indie-folk alternative pop, as a cursory glance at the NI Music Prize winner list might dictate. Belfast-based singer-songwriter Darragh Donnelly, aka Pale Lanterns, has released an EP and four singles in the past 11 months, and with each has come a firm compositional forward stride. ‘In The Dark We Are’ further broadens the aperture on Pale Lanterns’ sound, as it metamorphoses from somnambulant reverie into crystal clear self-questioning.

The Irish independent - Northern Irish songwriter Darragh Donnelly, aka Pale Lanterns, sounds very attuned to the fine balance between riding the wave of popular sounds within his genre (coarse touchpoints would be The War on Drugs and maybe a little Justin Vernon) and blitzing off on ones own path. Yet, 'Driftwood' veers off into an authentic mixture of downtempo Tycho-esque guitar spurts, and pretty expansive ambient instrumental passages. He's good at dropping little moments of glory into a pretty wide spread too.

Chordblossom - ‘Driftwood‘. Beautifully cinematic and typically introspective in its outlook, ‘Driftwood’ offers further evidence that Donnelly is a gifted lyricist and songwriter.