Tomorrows II, the second album by Son Lux in a far-reaching three-volume body of work culminating in physical editions to be released together in 2021, is out now via City Slang.
Arriving at a time of considerable uncertainty in the world, Son Lux’s multi-album ‘Tomorrows’ is ambitious in scope and intent. Born of an active, intentional approach to shaping sound, the music reminds us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension.
Also read: INTERVIEW: Swept away by the ‘Undertow’ of Son Lux
The trio, comprising Rafiq Bhatia, Ian Chang, and Ryan Lotttrain train 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.
As ‘Tomorrows II’ opens, the listener joins an album already unfolding. The music provides an appropriate parallel for the sustained cacophony of the present moment, advancing a friction that reveals the strange in the familiar and the familiar in the strange. While this carefully crafted inversion acclimatizes the ear to tension, the steadily hardening exterior fractures at unlikely moments, revealing a strikingly visceral, emotional core. The process of creating Tomorrows is iterative in nature, with the lyrical content and music continually adapting and responding to one another and the shifting landscape of the moment.
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.
Cover photo: Djeneba Aduayom
