July 29th, 2020 – Singapore – Iconoclastic experimental trio Son Lux have announced the release of an extraordinary new single. “Plans We Made” is available now on all digital streaming services here: sonlux.lnk.to/planswemade
“Plans We Made” marks the first single from ‘TOMORROWS’, an ambitious, three-volume album set to unfurl over the coming year; ‘TOMORROWS I’, the cycle’s masterful first chapter, arrives everywhere via City Slang on August 14th. The track – which features guest vocals from acclaimed singer-songwriter Kadhja Bonet – immediately establishes ‘TOMORROWS’ reverberant approach, its clock-like pulsebeat, sharp stabs, and lashing string sounds expertly conveying the band’s lyrical struggles with inevitability, the arc of time, and the fragility of our best intentions.
Son Lux’s sixth full-length studio LP, ‘TOMORROWS’ sees the always inventive trio – Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang – training their sights on volatile principles: imbalance, disruption, collision, redefinition. But for all of its instability, the project’s exploration of breaking points and sustained frictional places is ultimately in service of something rewarding and necessary – the act of questioning, challenging, tearing down and actively rebuilding one’s own identity.
“We’re peeling things apart and putting them back together throughout this record,” says Lott. “Emotionally, relationally, and musically.”
While the epic and intimate music of ‘TOMORROWS’ has been in development for the last three years, the album’s lyrical content was written over the last three months, masterfully reflecting the tumultuous energy and paradigm shifts of our current situation. Arriving at a time of considerable uncertainty in the world, ‘TOMORROWS’ is bold in both its awesome scope and grand intent. With their active, intentional approach to shaping sound, Son Lux once again remind us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension.
“The sound of Son Lux is discovered through a very intentional and deliberate process of experimentation where the end result is often entirely unknown,” says Lott. “We’re constantly exploring and trying out different options. We can’t anticipate what the music will become.”
Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen from its very start, ever questioning deeply held assumptions about how music is made and then re-constructing it from a molecular level.
The band began as a solo project by Los Angeles-based founder Ryan Lott but expanded in 2014 with the involvement of drummer Ian Chang and guitarist Rafiq Bhatia. The geographically and culturally diverse trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition on five acclaimed recordings, including 2015’s ‘BONES’ and 2018’s ‘BRIGHTER WOUNDS’.
“Their albums treat crisp, minuscule detail with cinematic grandeur.”
Pitchfork
“With a masterful flair for entwining the acoustic and the electronic, [Son Lux] crafts distinctive fluttering melodies, unique textures and dynamic arrangements that sound like no one else. Whether portraying majesty and wonder or heart-wrenching pain, Son Lux’s songs always transport us inside his richly rendered imagination.”
NPR
“Son Lux deconstruct genres with ease and then fuse them back together in
Frankenstein-esque brilliance.”
With each new work, Son Lux has forwarded their uniquely mercurial vision, their brilliantly fluid approach to genre and structure drawing on a genre-agnostic groundwork of soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation. Balancing raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions, Son Lux has crafted a carefully cultivated musical language all their own, rooted in curiosity, individuality, and commanding creativity.
‘TOMORROWS I’ Track Listing
1. Dissolve
2. Plans We Made
3. Bending Shadows
4. Only
5. Days Past
6. Honesty
7. Into Wind
8. Last Light
9. Undertow
10. Involution
Album art by Mareo Rodriquez, additional layout and image editing by Yuanyuan Su
“Plans We Made” is available on all streaming platforms here: sonlux.lnk.to/planswemade
Pre-save/order ‘TOMORROWS |’ here: sonlux.lnk.to/tomorrows
