The appropriately named Dream Academy was an English folk-rock trio who featured the considerable songwriting and musical talents of vocalist/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist (primarily oboe and cor anglais) Kate St. John, and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. When playing together they conjured up a sound that managed to be both pastoral and sleek, and heavily in debt to psychedelia and vintage British folk while also fitting right in next to the synthesized pop artists of their day. The band's biggest hit was the 1985 single "Life in a Northern Town," which juxtaposed African chanting and Nick Drake-inspired melancholy in a majestically Baroque fashion. A self-titled debut from the same year was much in the same vein; two further albums saw them expand into slicker, more mainstream realms before their 1991 split.