Christian Löffler will release Lys, his latest studio album, in March via his own Ki Records.

Lys serves as a contrast to Graal, its predecessor. Whereas the latter is the result of a six-month period spent largely on the road in between live shows, the former is a studio release in the truest sense, recorded and compiled in the serenity of Löffler home studio.

Rather than capturing a specific moment in time or emotion, Lys is a selection of Löffler’s favorite productions from the past three years, carefully compiled into one “enchanting and deeply moving listening experience,” the label explains.

The sounds of Lys can be traced back to late 2016, as Löffler settled back into his studio following Mare, but it really began to take shape in the wake of a creative breakthrough in 2018. Struggling with writer’s block, Löffler travelled to Denmark where he attended several galleries, only to return home bubbling with new ideas, visual and musical.

Graal, with its drawing-based artwork, reflected this rich period of initial creativity and opened the door to Lys, on which Löffler continues the narrative with 12 of his more contemplative and introspective studio adventures. Integral in the process was his painting of these earlier drawings, cementing a connection between his visual and musical work.

What unifies these songs is the process behind them. Waking up early, Löffler headed for a run before sitting down in his studio for 8am. He’d set his mind back to the early morning, and reflect on how the light would come through his window to create a beautiful assortment of colors on his wall. Inspired by the beauty of this process, he found himself painting these patterns and then communicating his feelings in his music. “I realised that the light is different in the north of Germany, and this became an overall theme for the album,” he explains, hence the album’s title, meaning “light” in Danish.

Conceptually, the album captures how his feelings evolved during a day of working on it, beginning in the morning and ending as he finished his painting in the evening. To capture his innermost feelings, he once again puts his voice front and centre. It also features the vocals of Menke, a young Swedish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist; and Mona, who has been a staple on his recent tours.

We’re told that a “natural calmness and beauty” pervades the album, even on the two club-ready tracks, “Island” and “Sun,” sketches from Mare but reworked to fit Löffler’s vision. “Versailles,” and “Lys,” two of the three lead singles, reflect the light and airy sound that Löffler envisioned at the beginning of the recording process. Meanwhile, “Noah,” the third single, stands for the record’s darker, heavier side, driven forward by Löffler own vocals. Along with “The End,” a final focus track, these singles came together to form the backbone of the album.

Tracklisting

01. Farr
02. Versailles (Hold)
03. Weiß
04. The End (feat. Josephine Philip)
05. Bergen
06. Noah
07. Lys (feat. Menke)
08. Sun
09. Ballet (feat. finn.)
10. Roth (feat. Mohna)
11. Map
12. Für Immer

Lys LP lands March 20.