Lost Lander

Formed in Portland, Oregon by Matt Sheehy—a songwriter, forester, and onetime touring member of Ramona Falls—the indie rock group Lost Lander shapes its sound around tightly constructed, melody-forward indie pop rooted in rural imagery. Its aesthetic draws deeply from the verdant, gray-skied atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest. The band’s first full-length release, the 2011 album DRRT, examined intersections between the natural world and technological advance and included production contributions from Menomena’s Brent Knopf. Serving simultaneously as co-creator and studio overseer, Knopf brought his distinctive approach to Sheehy’s understated, sometimes cryptic compositions. With the subsequent addition of Sarah Fennell on keyboards, Patrick Hughes on drums, and William Seiji Marsh on bass, Knopf again helmed the sessions for the group’s 2015 follow-up, the synth-colored and emotionally direct Medallion, whose thematic center moved toward the weighty matters of love, loss, life, and death.