Who | Son Lux

When | October 28

Where | Bi Nuu, Berlin

Ryan Lott is no stranger to storytelling through music: he’s composed numerous dance and film scores, most notably for the films Looper and Paper Towns. So the fact that his avant-pop project, Son Lux, sounds so profoundly majestic is a no-brainer. Their latest release, Bones, could certainly be treated as a unitary masterwork: starting with the hushed urgency of intro cut “Breathe In” and ending with the heavenly final track “Breathe Out,” each song acts as a step along the epic journey that is questioning and—ultimately—coming to terms with one’s identity.

Lott weaves together various recurring motives, assuring that every aspect of the music contributes to the overarching theme. Whether it be melodies that sound as if they’re being played on instruments found in catacombs or Lott’s bare and brittle voice, it all adheres brilliantly to the aesthetic. This album also finds him pulling from many different influences, ranging from African percussion and call-and-response choruses to refreshingly abrasive and jarring big beat sounds and electrotechnics, à la Sisyphus bandmate Sufjan Stevens’s Age of Adz. In a nutshell: if listening to Son Lux at home evokes such an experience, I can’t imagine the live show would be anything other than a spectacle.