L.Y.R. started with a dictaphone traveling up and down the country; first gathering the words and voice of author, poet laureate and polymath Simon Armitage up in Yorkshire, before heading south towards the studios of Grammy nominated singer & songwriter Richard Walters in Hampshire, then acclaimed producer & multi-instrumentalist Patrick James Pearson in Devon. What began as a creative correspondence experiment, once described as a ‘genre-splicing supergroup’, has gone on to become a much loved, highly prolific and very real-life band.
Ten years later and L.Y.R. are creating some of their finest and most accomplished work, as heard on the upcoming album ‘Dark Sky Reservation’. It follows a decade of inventiveness and world building, that has included two full length studio albums, a concept record about a street in Barnsley, an orchestral ode to the Shipping Forecast for the BBC Proms, commissions for the National Trust, Durham Brass Festival & more, plus festival appearances including Green Man, Latitude & Bluedot, as well as several sold-out UK tours.
Ahead of their latest long player and largest UK run to date, L.Y.R. show no signs of slowing down.
The new album by L.Y.R., their third commercial release, begins with the idea that the furthest points of light - stars - can only be seen in the dark. It’s a kind of contradiction that finds musical expression in these new tracks, the band always navigating towards sightings of hopefulness and constancy in an increasingly bewildering and storm-battered world.
