Unless you're on death row, TODAY is the first day of the rest of your life.  Everything starts TODAY my friends. That's because TODAY  (well, the day i'm writing this) happens to be Friday 6th April, which - in addition to being the first day of the new tax year (#excitement) - is the first day you can listen to the brand new dreamy LP The Year Dot by our non-identical London quintuplets, Firestations.

Johannesburg-based English singer-songwriter Victoria Hume released her stunning EP,  Closing on Lost Map Records, back in 2016 - seven sparse, wintry songs of fluttering piano and strings, bright guitars and beautifully naturalistic vocals. Closing arrived at Lost Map's door after it was passed to Pictish Trail by his musical accomplice, and partner-in-spandex Adem of Silver Columns. Adem had previously worked with Victoria on her 2013 project Delirium, a cycle of songs themed around the complex hallucinations patients have been known to experience during hospital-based intensive care (outside of music, Victoria works as an arts manager in health and medicine and as a researcher).

The first Delirium project had been based on conversations with patients in the UK, and now Victoria has created a follow up album, Delirium Part II, with patients in South Africa. Here she is with more information about the project ...

Lost Map are excited to support Fire Records in a deluxe double-vinyl reissue of Pictish Trail's critically-acclaimed third album Future Echoes, available in select stores from Record Store Day, April 21.

To celebrate the release, Pictish Trail will be performing a rare solo show at the Amersham Arms in London for Record Store Day, ahead of a summer of festivals, including Green Man, Folk Forest, Deer Shed and Skye Live.

Look at us, in that photo.  JUST LOOK AT US.  So fresh faced.  That was our "primary 1 school photo", taken at Green Man Festival in 2013, where Lost Map was officially born on the 16th August.  What a weekend that was! It’s 2018, now… and our 5th birthday is this summer - what better way to spend it, than by returning to the Brecon Beacons?

YES.  Green Man have invited Lost Map to celebrate our 5th birthday!   Pictish Trail, BAS JAN, Ed Dowie will all be representing Lost Map at this year’s bash, with separate sets, alongside some Lost Map DJs … and, sweet jebus, LM graduate Seamus Fogarty is gonna be performing over the weekend too.  It’s going to be emotional, folks.

Bas Jan's debut album Yes I Jan is now OFFICIALLY released into the world.  Having been made available digitally over the past few weeks, the gorgeous retina-burning orange sleeve LP is now a real life physical product that you can hold in your hands, and even eat your dinner off ... 

Hey internet fans.  I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s nothing better than a ‘semi-regular feature’.   You know what i’m talking about, right?   A series of online posts, strapped with a BIG TITLE and good intentions, that crops up from time to time without warning or reason, often appearing in a big CLUMP, before the author forgets it exists, or gets bored, and the feature disappears into the nether regions of the world’s wide web.

Well … we, at Lost Map, pride ourselves on being the masters of the ‘semi-regular feature’.  So, without further ado, here’s a new semi-regular feature on the Lost Map website entitled TRACK-BY-TRACK, in which we ask the artists to give a brief description of an album they have released with us.  The first in this irregular series is by ... MONOGANON.

Lost Map are excited to welcome latest signings BAS JAN, the London experimental post-punk trio built around the remarkable and distinctive voice and songs of multi-instrumentalist and composer Serafina Steer. A brilliant, bonkers, shape-shifting song about the weird tedium of a text message spat (“Drop it? Why don’t you drop it!”), 'Argument' – available to stream and share now – is the first single to be revealed from BAS JAN's forthcoming debut album Yes I Jan, due early 2018.

Lost Map are pleased to announce that our spiritual captain, Pictish Trail, has signed to Fire Records.  As you can see from the photo above, he's so overwhelmed with excitement that he is expelling a viscous pink liquid.  This doesn't mean he's abandoning Lost Map, but rather tying our DIY dinghy to a much sturdier vessel.

To celebrate, our Picty is heading out on a never ending tour.   First up there's a batch of solo dates, supporting KT Tunstall around Europe, followed by some full band appearances at events in Paisley, Aberfeldy, Stirling and Edinburgh, mixed in with some stripped-back three-piece shows, on his headline UK tour Winter Rewind Acid Reflux.

Our second Strange Invitation event is taking place at Paisley Arts Centre on Sunday 22nd October in the year of our Bart 2017.   It's part of a series of acts taking place in Paisley throughout October, as part of their annual Spree Festival.   We're really chuffed that they've asked Lost Map to be involved, and we've put together a suitably top bill for the occasion.

Strange Invitation is an irregular Lost Map showcase, with various acts from the roster, alongside special guests.   The doors will open from 5pm, and there'll be live music until 10.30pm - all for the cost of £14 (£12 concessions).  You can purchase tickets here: http://lostmap.com/tickets/strange-invitation 

Click READ MORE for info on the line-up ... 

After a fervently busy summer which included triumphant appearance at festivals including Field Day, Glastonbury, Green Man and Lost Map’s Howlin’ Fling!, and was capped with a shortlisting for the Scottish Album of the Year Award by popular vote, Isle of Eigg-based Scottish DIY electronic folk-tinged croft pop sonic hermit and Lost Map Records founder and director Pictish Trail looks ahead to the cold season with the Winter Rewind Acid Reflux Tour.

Lost Map Records are delighted to welcome the return of London lo-fi dreamy-grunge quartet Lazy Day with their shimmering and soaring new track ‘Hiccup’.

Listen to 'Hiccup':  Spotify / AppleMusic / SoundCloud / Deezer

'Hiccup' is second thrilling taster of their forthcoming EP Ribbons, which is due for release on 10” vinyl and digital formats on September 15, 2017.  You can pre-order the EP from Lost Map right now, at a special price ... and it's also available as a bundle with their Disappear 7", and 'With My Mind' postcard.  The EP also features previous single, 'With My Mind'.

You might have noticed, the Lost Map website has been a bit slow with updates over the past few months.  It's mainly because we've been up to our collective chins in preparation / partying for our semi-regular hoolie on the Isle of Eigg, Lost Map's Howlin' Fling!. 

Well, you'll be pleased to know that it happened last weekend, 28th - 30th July 2017 ... and to prove it, we've got a gallery of photos captured at the event by Beth Chalmers, Colin Campbell and Eoin Carey.   This is just the start of our Fling coverage.  If you were there, you can relive the memories ... and if you weren't there?  Well, you can just pretend you were by covering yourself in mud and booze, and rubbing your face closely against the screen.

Have a look at the gallery, here: http://lostmap.com/howlin-fling-2017

Pictish Trail's busy summer just got busier and summierererrr.    He's playing the biggest festival in the cosmos, Glastonbury Festival, in June, and is taking the full band with him.   The new album, Future Echoes, has been nominated for Scottish Album Of The Year.  Read on for all upcoming live dates, and other hot gossip. 

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours.  In the proverbial 'Stella Street' that is Lost Map, we've got a fair few characters - Rozi Plain, always mowing the lawn; the various Canaveral Kids mucking about on the street corner, swilling Buckfast; Ed Dowie twitching his curtains.   And someone new has just moved into the Savage Mansion at No. 15 ... it's Mr Craig Angus, and his chums.  Let's go and meet them ...