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[CLICK HERE if you want to purchase non-limited individual LPs of 'At War With Walls & Mazes' or 'We Are Rising'. But take note, 'Remnants' is only available in the box set.]





Around 2008 Ryan Lott asked himself this question: ”Can I make a pop record that doesn’t rely on a verse/chorus formula?” In many ways Lott’s first two releases as Son Lux represent his response to that query. At War With Walls & Mazes and We Are Rising document one of the most compelling musicians of the 21st century finding a distinctive creative voice, while making strikingly original music along the way.



"Ultimately, I wanted to try writing pop music, and yet abandon some of the conventions of song,” Lott says. "I was obsessed with devising rules that governed my approach. I wasn't going to use story, or the ebb and flow of verse and chorus. Instead, I sought to create a continually fascinating listening experience that changed from second to second, and explore other means to craft a pop song.”



Lott turned to sonic texture as a source of musical sustenance, crafting a dynamic mosaic of sound inspired by the collagist technique of hip-hop beat makers. “I was culling sounds from disparate places and finding unique and unexpected results. I was trying to reconcile my European classical training with my fascination for pop music, hip-hop, and soul. I was hoping to do that explicitly in the music production, but I was also trying to do it philosophically. I was just a classical music kid that really loved beats,” Lott recalls.



The soundscapes Lott created merged a panoramic symphonic palette with the propulsive rhythmic urgency of hip-hop. The only thing missing was a voice, a role Lott hadn’t intended to fill himself. "Some friends helped me to hear in my own voice something that really worked with the music,” Lott says. “My voice was very fragile and emotive, while instrumentally-speaking the music I was creating was architectural and precise. Somewhere in the combination of those two ideas it all worked. So I became a singer."



The decision to release At War With Walls & Mazes and We Are Rising on the underground rap label Anticon was natural for Lott. “I thought of what I was doing as hip-hop,” he explains. Lott feels this moment provides a good opportunity to reexamine these releases. "They've both been out of print for awhile. But more importantly, I'm proud of the music, and I feel like it set the right foundation for my catalogue as Son Lux, so it makes sense to bring it back on vinyl and shed some light on it now that the project has a broader audience."



Eleven years after his debut as Son Lux, Joyful Noise Recordings is reissuing these first two works on vinyl.



A decade after inception, Son Lux has now shifted from Lott’s singular vision into a three-piece ensemble featuring virtuoso musicians Ian Chang on drums, and Rafiq Bhatia on guitar. But Lott’s initial Son Lux recordings still point toward an exciting musical future that contemporary pop music has yet to realize.

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REMNANTS

Remnants is a compelling collection of rare and previously unreleased recordings by Son Lux spanning 2008 to 2017. These recordings include pieces commissioned for dance, drastic re-imaginings of existing Son Lux songs, and three outtakes from the first Son Lux release, At War With Walls & Mazes. More than a decade after inception, Son Lux has shifted from Lott’s singular vision into a three-piece ensemble featuring virtuoso musicians Ian Chang on drums, and Rafiq Bhatia on guitar, and Son Lux’s continually evolving recordings still point toward an exciting musical future that contemporary pop music has yet to realize.