It was in Champaign (Illinois) that at the beginning of the 1980s singer Lynn Canfield, guitarist Henry Frayne and drummer Brendan Gamble started playing in !Ack Ack! Years late, the first two formed Area, playing soft pop muzak as documented bt the albums Radio Caroline (C'Est La Mort) and The Perfect Dream (C'Est La Mort). The third member, instead, joined the Poster Children.
Once Canfield and Gamble got married, the trio reformed, this time as Moon Seven Times. The style was the same as Area's, imitating the ethereal whispering and the spiritual intensity of the Cowboy Junkies, but the drumming was now more prominent.

Moon Seven Times (Third Mind, 1993), loyal to that languid and somnolent style that occupies a limbo between Mazzy Star and His Name Is Alive, a style that is more effective when it is more spartan (Motion).
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

The balance between Lynn Canfield�s melancholic solfeggi, Brendan Gamble�s complex rhythms, and Henry Frayne�s delicate guitar phrasing has already reached magical, dreamlike levels, reminiscent of Hugo Largo. Carrying these angelic madrigals is the singing, in the most archaic folk tradition, while the instruments weave subtle ragas, improvise with religious intensity over a few fixed chords, or emit faint, intermittent signs of life. Canfield�s poetic visions are immersed in soundscapes bordering on electro-acoustic avant-garde, as in Her House, wrapped in a delicate breeze of reverberation, or in Straw Donkeys, marked by hypnotic and imperceptible minimalism. Paris Luna takes the form of a Lied halfway between Nico�s most exotic/decadent side and symphonic/oriental-tinged new age�a cultured and austere form, only fleetingly related to rock music (their philosophical apex being the line, �We are only the way we are for a while�).
Despite this, Moon Seven Times� music always retains an intrinsic simplicity and immediacy, especially in tracks that forgo any harmonic vanity, collapsing into a sleepwalking daze (Dear Joe), or flirting with the swinging emptiness of the Cowboy Junkies (Motion). Something of U2 and Pink Floyd, however, floods the liveliest track, My Medicine.
The procession of gentle, slow melodies passes through the psychological portrait of Miranda, full of lived experience and tragic forebodings (with lines worthy of Romantic poets: �Oh how sweet this in-between / could be my toes / caught among the stones / will let me drop unseen / let me cross alone�). Impressionistic watercolors, Monet murals, inspire these solemn afterlife recitations, especially the long Surrender.

Similarly, on 7=49 (Roadrunner, 1994), the highlights are likely the timid, sleepwalking Cowboy Junkies�style blues of Crybaby and especially Pavement Shines. Among hypnotic Cocteau Twins�style choruses like Knock and Curling Wall, a gentle folk-ballad style emerges, especially in Guppy and John, crossing Pretenders with Joni Mitchell. The album reaches its peak with the enchanted vision of I�ll Gather Flowers, a pinnacle of lyricism and fade.
With a touch of Belly for seasoning, Moon Seven Times� sound is simultaneously romantic and vigorous, naive and mature, experimental and classical.

Sunburnt (Roadrunner, 1997) confirms a rapid turn toward soft pop chart sensibilities. Canfield�s smoky contralto brushes the tones of the most sensual and confessional Natalie Merchant on Further, and mostly purrs in chanteuse-style ballads like Thirteen Days. The band seems awkward when attempting jazz arrangements on Bug Collection.
The music settles into cushions of soporific melodies, the subtle dreaminess of earlier times reduced to mere timbral surface. The most touching moments occur when the quartet�s clear classicism diverges from standard song forms, as when the vocals soar over the gospel organ on Some Of Them Burn, and especially in the madrigal Nashville, with a Yesterday-like Beatles melody, acoustic guitar strumming, and cello rumble.

Henry Frayne is also the leader of the Lanterna project.

Lanterna was a side project of guitarist Henry Frayne and drummer Brendan Gamble. The 70-minute debut album, Lanterna (Parasol, 1995 - Rykodisc, 1998) is mainly atmospheric instrumentals in the vein of Scenic. After a long hiatus, the idea was reprised for Elm Street (Badman, 2001).

Lynn Canfield and Brendan Gamble formed Shotgun Wedding with Brian Wilkie (guitar), Rob Arrol (bass) and Todd Fletcher (keyboards), who debuted with A Big World of Fun (1998).