About

Amy Steele (Entertainment Realm) review - "There’s a bit of comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our despair, sadness or frustration. Meditative Shoegaze-y instrumentation and layered arrangements safely engulf you and transport you into a beautiful aural solace."

The Light Gathering Lens is my (Eric Burnham) music project. 

I started playing the trombone when I was seven years old, but I didn't pick up a guitar until my freshman year in college.

I first learned to play classical guitar, and a little bit of flamenco. Flamenco music still is an influence for me, along with near- and middle eastern traditional music.

I have struggled with major depression for almost all of my adult life, and this has affected my art. I want my music to, generally, be about all of the struggles with mental illness, and about finally finding some redemption after so many years of bleak and desolate malaise.

I first formed The Light Gathering Lens in my mind in the early 1990's. I had been the guitar player in a band, (Weather Theater), since 1984, but I wanted to sing, and I had been interested in slower, experimental, and ambient sounding music for quite some time, and I recorded a four-song EP in a friend’s living room.

Twenty-four years after I recorded the EP, I discovered it again. In listening to it after so much time, I decided to release and promote it. My research was stagnating due to the drying up of funds after the 2008 recession, and I had much time to do things like create music. I had been a wildlife scientist and my research had been aimed at conserving gray wolves in the western U.S. I had spent much time alone in the wilderness tracking wolf movements, and analyzing their kill sites, and I think that this was quite inspirational.

My next project will be to record and release a full-length album. Like the EP, it will feature my guitar and voice, with more of the slow, ambient, experimental pop.

Contact information - [email protected]