L.Y.R. is author and current British poet laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist & producer Patrick Pearson.
 
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.
 
The term dark sky reservation has its origins in environmentalism, and several tracks on
the album deal with the messed-up weather of our contemporary planet, both
meteorological and psychological, from descriptions of an earth deluged by
thunderstorms to the soggy back-gardens of suburbia, a climate crisis brought on by
rampant urbanism. In that context, dark sky reservations are those regions of the
landscape where light pollution is discouraged and even outlawed, to allow scientists and
casual stargazers to peer into the cosmos and see the glory of the constellations,
patterns of light that have entranced and mystified us for hundreds of thousands of
years.
 
It’s from those designated zones that human beings get a sense of their place in the
universe, and experience the wonder of the here and now against a context of eternity
and infinity. An alternative to the hectic craziness of everyday life, so often virtual and
synthetic, the dark sky reservation is a place of refuge and dreaming, and like L.Y.R.’s
music, such spaces are earmarked for contemplation and thoughtfulness.
 
TRACKLIST:
Side A
1. Dark Sky Reservation
2. A Walled Garden
3. Blah! Blah! Blah!
4. Pray Silence
5. Where Have You Been All My Life?
6. French Cursive
Side B
1. Guernica Jigsaw
2. Eclipse
3. The Goldilocks Zone
4. Sirius Alpha, Sirius Beta
5. Under Artificial Lighting
6. Collared Dove