As previously announced, L.Y.R. will release their new album Dark Sky Reservation on 3rd April via Real World Records. Today, the trio share the LP’s title track, and it arrives as both a mission statement and a mood: slow-burning, quietly disquieting, and shot through with the kind of lyrical precision you’d expect from a band fronted by UK poet laureate Simon Armitage.
The song takes its name from designated geographic areas where light pollution is restricted or prohibited, places where, on clear nights, the full depth of the night sky becomes visible. It’s a concept rich with contradiction — and contradiction is where L.Y.R. do some of their best work. The idea that darkness is a prerequisite for perceiving the furthest reaches of the cosmos aligns with the album’s broader emotional terrain: doubt, hesitation, and the uneasy space between fear and wonder.
Musically, Dark Sky Reservation is characteristic of the band at their most atmospheric. Patrick J. Pearson‘s production creates a hypnotic, unhurried backdrop, over which Richard Walters‘ ethereal voice carries a fragile self-questioning. Armitage’s spoken counterpart enters as a disappointed significant other, grounding the song’s more celestial themes in something altogether more human and bruised. The result is a piece that seems to practice evasion and confession simultaneously, circling its subject without ever quite landing — which feels entirely intentional.
Alongside the original, L.Y.R. have shared a live version recorded outdoors for The Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity. Stripped back and equally affecting, it reinforces the song’s themes of open space and contemplative quiet.
Ten years into their existence as a band, L.Y.R. have built a genuinely singular body of work. Dark Sky Reservation is their third commercial release and, if this title track is any indication, among their finest.
Dark Sky Reservation is released 3rd April via Real World Records.
Pre-Order Dark Sky Reservation: https://lnk.to/RW270
L.Y.R. UK Tour:
Thursday 16 April – CAMBRIDGE – Storey’s Field Centre
Friday 17 April – KENDAL – Arts Centre
Saturday 18 April – LIVERPOOL – Tung Auditorium
Sunday 19 April – BIRMINGHAM – Bradshaw Hall
Tuesday 21 April – NOTTINGHAM – Squire Performing Arts Centre
Wednesday 22 April – GLASGOW – Cottiers
Thursday 23 April – GATESHEAD – Glasshouse Sage 2
Friday 24 April – POCKLINGTON – Pocklington Arts Centre
Saturday 25 April – HEBDEN BRIDGE – Trades Club
Monday 4 May – LEEDS – City Varieties
Tuesday 5 May – BRISTOL – The Lantern
Wednesday 6 May – LONDON – ICA
Thursday 7 May – BRIGHTON – Komedia
Friday 8 May – EXETER – Mount Dinham
Saturday 9 May – FALMOUTH – Cornish Bank at KCM church