For nearly 10 years, Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes cultivated one of the richest and most innovative sounds in contemporary music. More emotive than trip-hop, more angular than folk music, and more organic than most hybridized electronica, Lamb occupied the space between profound sadness and boundless jubilation, using a sophisticated marriage of sound and technology to communicate the rawest and most basic of human emotion. Barlow and Rhodes spoke two different languages through the same voice, but over time, that voice began to strain. In 2004, it stopped communicating all together............................ For the first time in ten years - since signing his record deal with Universal at 19 - Barlow was staring at a blank canvas. No tour dates, no timeline, no expectations. He produced a few tracks for various artists and added to his instrumentalist repertoire under the Hipoptimist alias he created before Lamb began, but nothing could fully satiate his desires. Nothing was coming out right. The only measure that could counteract the tumultuous emotion surrounding Lamb's dissolve was to introduce yet another element of change...................... Motivated by an invitation from his brother, Barlow decided to go hiking around Nepal. "Just go away for a month," he says. "Have a bit of 'finding Andy' again." One month turned into two, and from Nepal he traveled to India, where he stayed for four months….................. Around the same time, 24-year-old Carrie Tree was at a crossroads of her own. An accomplished guitarist and percussionist who'd toured with Damian Rice, Carrie had fashioned a bourgeoning musical career, but was beginning to experience firsthand the unfortunate side effects of industry................... "It always seemed to be about product and money and writing hits and playing showcases," she says. "Lots of people were trying to push me in directions I didn't know if I wanted to go in, and because you're a singer/songwriter, there's one of you and loads of them. I was starting to almost hate music, which is the scariest thing ever. I was stuck in the middle of all this stuff that had nothing to do with music, and I just had to get away."............... Like Barlow, Tree needed to centre herself amidst a tumultuous period of self-doubt. So she returned to Australia, where she had busked on the streets with her guitar at the age of 18. One afternoon, she received an e-mail through her Myspace page from a potential musical collaborator back home. "Would she be interested in doing a track?" She replied that she'd been living in Australia for the past year, and didn't have any immediate plans to come back to England. If she did, however, she would most definitely get in touch.................... "It was a beautiful e-mail," she remembers, "but when you're on the other side of the planet, it feels very far away. I didn't know there'd be a partnership there at all."................. Carrie was the only singer Andy had contacted............... Three months later, after Carrie had eventually returned from Australia, a friend decided to invite her along to a birthday party one Saturday night. Early Sunday evening, amongst a small assortment of stragglers, Carrie found herself playing an impromptu acoustic set in the living room of her long distance collaborator.................. "I just fell in love with her voice instantly," says Barlow. "From that point on, we started this project."............................ Luna Seeds is more than a new beginning for Barlow and Tree. It's an antidote that's strengthened muscles that had begun to atrophy. There are no clearly defined roles, with both contributing an equal amount of music and lyrics to the recordings in a free flowing exchange that's brought Andy a new level of confidence and Carrie a new set of creative tools. "I've only ever had my guitar or a piano, or at least two hands and one voice," says Tree. "It's all the ideas I've always had in my head." Influenced by folk singers like Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and John Martin, Carrie sings with a delicate, humble urgency that penetrates the deepest spaces of the soul with the flickering force of a whisper. Barlow coaxes unparalleled levels of eloquence and beauty from his machines, forging organic tones and textures over head-tripping beats. Unafraid to flirt with more accessible instrumentation and song structures, both musicians transform simple ballads into graceful odes of self-discovery. ...................... "Compassion" calls to mind epic Lamb instrumentals as Carrie's effected voice patiently unfolds over an evolving marriage of strings and sound design. "Tremors," meanwhile, showcases another of Luna Seed's unique gifts. "Long time ago; slowly, surely. Two souls collide; softly, swiftly. We played with rhythm and voice. How long would this good thing last?" sings Tree. The song, written by Andy shortly after Lamb's break-up, is the type of cathartic, expository writing that's revealed a previously untapped well of inspiration within............................ "I guess I've learned to be Andy Barlow now, rather than Andy Barlow from Lamb," he reveals. "Andy from Lamb is a whole lot easier because you've got the golden key. People want to take you around and be nice to you. The muscle of 'who I'm about' was so weak it took me a long time to get that back.".................................... The comparisons to Lamb are unavoidable, but the similarities are few and far between. Barlow and Tree are communicating likeminded thoughts through a united voice; a clear channel to a world replete with ethnic instrumentation, guitar balladry, inspired percussion, and luminescent, electronic treasures............................................ "After Lamb split up, everything had to burn before it could be rebuilt," Andy continues. "I feel my life growing again. After a year-and-a-half, the seeds are finally taking hold." ..............................................