The Luyas are pleased to announce the release of their forthcoming record, Animator, out October 16th on Dead Oceans.

Recorded in their hometown of Montreal and created in the midst and reflection of a close friend’s sudden death, Animator flows through its own catharsis with a profound depth and richness.

The band’s first single, “Fifty Fifty,” is now available. It fluctuates between a shadowy edge and a hopeful brightness, as multi-instrumentalist and lead singer Jessie Stein laments, “dreams die, dreams die,” culminating in a soaring, distant, vaguely heavenly chorus.

In addition to “Fifty Fifty,” the band has also revealed the tracklisting and cover art for Animator, inspired by the late 19th century modern dancer and icon of the Art Nouveau movement, Loïe Fuller.

The Luyas went into the studio on a February morning with the plan of getting some drum sounds to start writing songs for a new album. As the mics were going up, the band received a phone call. There had been a sudden death. The incomprehensible event left the band in an existential daze. The mics put themselves up that morning.

The resulting LP, Animator, opens with “Montuno,” a 9-minute account of a hallucination about the repetition of days, the split seconds that define us, and the strangeness of the certainty of death.

Recorded and produced at the Treatment Room by band member and experimental brass player Pietro Amato and mixed by Jace Lasek of the Besnard Lakes at his Breakglass Studios in the band’s hometown of Montreal, Animator is a cathartic sophisticated collection of songs. As melodically compelling as it is artistically rich, Animator is intuitive, seductive, moody and textural. It slowly unfolds its beauty and trusts the listener to stay with it.

Just as dance pioneer Loïe Fuller, whose image graces the album cover, beguiled the world with the Dance Serpentine, the songs on Animator have a hypnotic effect. Sarah Neufeld and Amato’s arrangements of string and horn float throughout, fragile and fleeting. Stein’s gentle vocals have an eerie insular feel. Mathieu Charbonneau and Mark Wheaton’s rhythm section put you in a trance. Fleets of strange noises dot the horizon. Like Portishead or the Silver Apples, the Luyas exist in the world to communicate something original yet fundamentally relatable without resorting to nostalgia.

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Animator | Tracklisting 

01. Montuno

02. Fifty Fifty

03. The Quiet Way

04. Face

05. Your Name’s Mostly Water

06. Earth Turner

07. Talking Mountains

08. Traces

09. Crimes Machine

10. Channeling