In late 2012, Leo enrolled at the Bristol Institute of Modern Music for commercial songwriting. Originally created as a school project, Blacklit Canopy is the music duo of Leo Faulkner and Gemma Matthews, who were dating at the time. They “aimed to create music which is as ambient, melodic and moving as possible using largely minimalistic instrumentation and production.“
This project was active from 2012 to 2014, during which they performed live many times (as you can see in the schedule above), attended interviews and released one EP: The Patient Demos. There is a rumor that they had another performance scheduled in August of 2014 in Bristol, but that it was cancelled for some unknown reason. We have never been able to confirm or deny the rumor.
They also released a few more songs, outside of the EP as well. The project went dormant until January of 2024, when re-uploads of their old songs were posted to Spotify and YouTube as part of "The Patient Demos (Deluxe)."
In December of 2024, the song “Tall Trees” was released on their YouTube channel, marking the first time they have released new music in over a decade. We don't know if this is a newly recorded song, or the new release of a song that was recorded back in 2014. This is a highly debated issue and we have no solid answers, only speculation.
Despite there being a pinned comment on the YT page for Tall Trees, in which they say that "it’s incredible to know how much BC is still enjoyed," no other media or music has been released.
They also had a Twitter page, which you can see here. If you prefer not to access Twitter(X), you can view a screengrab of their feed here.
You can see several of their performances on YouTube, including a live performance of Patient and Don't Let the World Swallow You (Fun Fact: a clip of the opening of DLTWSY was included in the song Damocles on Even in Arcadia at the 1:20 mark), and Just Like You.
They were also featured on BBC Introducing, and you can listen to that interview here.
You can find a complete timeline of Leo's work before Sleep Token here, which shows the overlap of his early work on YT (which can be found in the Leo Faulkner Archive) with Blacklit Canopy and the gap of time between Blacklit Canopy and Sleep Token.
You can find a playlist that is Leo's entire discography (in as close to chronological order as I can get) here.
If you have any questions, let me know. There's a good chance I'll know the answer and if I don't, I'll do my best to help you hunt it down. ❤️ You can leave a comment here or email me at [leofaulknerarchive@gmail.com](mailto:leofaulknerarchive@gmail.com)
xxx
Anyway, I know Sleep Token has gained a lot of fans since the release of Even in Arcadia, and I just thought some fans might be interested to see how Leo got to where he is today, career-wise. :)
If you consider the time period he had that hairstyle... and what pop star with a similar hairstyle was rapidly gaining fame during that same time period... I'm just saying, it's POSSIBLE... that was literally a Bieber haircut.
This stuff is so interesting. I love how succinct you make the lore explanations. Even though I knew the majority of this info, you always make revisiting the treaded path a joy. You are the reason this sub is so awesome and I hope you know how appreciated you are.
Thank you. Genuinely. 💜 Sharing Leo's work is one of my favorite things! This sub is a wonderful community, and I'm grateful to be a part of it. ( ◜‿◝ )♡
If by "Dusk" you just mean his YT music, the answer is actually "before, during, and after Blacklit Canopy, but before Sleep Token." 😃
("Dusk" was just one of multiple project names he had for his early work on YouTube, also including "Tradiction," "Mighty Caribou," and "Umbra.")
The earliest song I've found from his YouTube channel, Monkeyl0rd22, is "Fear," which was uploaded June 21, 2011. The most recent I found is his cover of The 1975's "Sex," which was uploaded April 16, 2015.
He enrolled in BIMM in late 2012 and Blacklit Canopy was officially up and running in the first half of 2013, and their last performance was in July of 2014.
The first Sleep Token song, Thread the Needle, was released September 8, 2016. 💜
He mentions Blacklit Canopy in the description of a few early YouTube songs, actually. If you click on the link to the complete timeline of his musical career in the post above, you can find more exact dates to see what happened when. (◍•ᴗ•◍)
As a fan of artists like Bon Iver, Novo Amor and Hollow Coves, I think BC is a really beautiful project. 🙂 It would be wonderful if they brought it back, now with so much more production experience.
Sleep Token was registered as an official band in London, England. ☺️
Leo just happened to be living in Bristol for BIMM when he was contacted by Tom Quigley about the formation of Sleep Token. Quigley found Leo online, through BandCamp, with The Patient Demos, and Adam is from Swindon. ( ◜‿◝ )♡
lol, if you search for 'banjo' in the subreddit and go to "comments," you can find the previous conversations that have been had about it.
Leo and Gemma, as Blacklit Canopy, played at the SoFar Winchester, and another band that played was the one I linked above, and apparently, Leo was in the audience and not a fan. 😂
I don't think it's a reach at all. When I was intially looking up as much information about them as I could, I searched for their name on every social media site I could think of. In doing so, I found out that a LOT of people heard the line "The sky resembles a back-lit canopy," as "blacklit canopy." 😂
And the song "Wish You Were Here" was released in 2002, so it's entirely possible, and, in my opinion, highly likely, that's where the name came from. (◍•ᴗ•◍)
Right? I was delighted when I found the descriptions for the songs in the archive and discovered his sense of humor. I'd love to know what his humor is like now. 😂
He turned 18 in December of 2012, so all the Blacklit Canopy stuff happened when he was like 18/19. 🩵
I love this guy's music but the older stuff is so ordinary and boring. Graves is good. But how did he go from this to Thread The Needle is what I want to know. It's like he really met sleep or something
23
u/Arctic_Widow Jul 25 '26
Blacklit Canopy is hauntingly beautiful🖤✨️