Lyrian

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Lord of the Marsh (by The Blossom)

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Released: Apr 15, 2013

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Lord of the Marsh (by The Blossom)
13:59
23 plays
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The Age of Gold (extract)
8:26
51 plays
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Tattoo (cover/re-interpretation)
12:03
91 plays
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Fabula Mirandae
10:41
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The hollow
8:37
168 plays

Total Plays: 4,216 / Plays Today: 11See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Classic Rock / Progressive / Rock
Location Moreton-in-Marsh, Middle Earth, Un
Profile Views: 14739
Last Login: 4/15/2013
Member Since 12/28/2006
Website www.medievalrecords.co.uk
Record Label Medieval
Type of Label Indie
Bio
Lyrian is a progressive rock band, formed in 2006 by three wrinkled halflings. The band is a vehicle for the songwriting team of Paul W. Nash and John Blake, and plans no live appearances at present, working in the studio on the creation of vast, wobbling mountains of prog. Apologies are due to the other band named Lyrian, the one based in Mexico, which we had not heard of when we named ours. We chose the name because of the derivation from Lyra, the Latin lyre, with its associations with lyric poetry and music, and because it is (almost) "librarian" without a bra. The founder members of the band have all worked as ly(bra)rians. We have recently been joined by another librarian, legendary drummer and bearded percussionist Edgar "Ed" Wilde. .... Lyrian's bandcamp page can be seen at www.lyrian.bandcamp.com/ and Medieval Records can be found at www.medievalrecords.co.uk. .... Ringtones, some based on Lyrian songs, some entirely original, can now be acquired from our muscular arm, Bellfounder, here: http://www.myxer.com/artist/id/55173697/Bellfounder/ .... Five of the songs available here are extracts from our concept album Nightingale Hall, released in 2008. The full version of "Nightingales" is only seventeen-and-a-half minutes long. This is still too short, I fear, for a true prog rock epic. ....Nightingale Hall consists of eight songs, and runs for a brain-numbing 75 minutes. The album tells the story of a house, and the doings of its denizens – heroic, tragic, gnomic and mystic. Copies can be acquired for £6.00 or $12.00 (plus £1.00/$2.00 for postage and packing), from eBay, CD Baby, or from the band. See http://cdbaby.com/cd/lyrianrock. The first pressing was limited to five hundred copies with a cover hand-printed at the Strawberry Press (this pressing is now out of print, but a second pressing is available, albeit without the hand-printed cover). .... Most of the other tracks are extracts from songs on our second full-scale album, which is available now. It is called "The tongues of men and angels" (a quotation from St Paul, of course – not that any of the band members are big fans of the Saint, but that section of his first letter to the Corinthians, in the Authorized Version, is lovely English). The song called "Three one-eyed gods" is twenty-six-and-three-quarter minutes long. Hurrah! Copies of the double CD are available from the band (www.medievalrecords.co.uk), eBay, Amazon, 7Digital and all good music shops and virtual vendors. .... The band is now working on three (count them, three!) new albums, the next serious CD of progressive rock songs, a more light-hearted collection of Tributes and Parodies (cover versions and cover perversions), and a sequence based on Mendelssohn's Gutenberg Festgesange. Several drafts and songs from these albums are also available here, as well as a one-off Valentine's Day "single", Fabula Mirandae. ... Here is a review or two of Nightingale Hall: The album has been described as "a work of genius" by Philip (at yesfans.com) who adds that it is "already in line to be my album of the year after a mere half a dozen listens. Imagine a blend of that prime early Genesis and classic Barclay James Harvest with a smidgen of Gryphon in there too. It's a concept album as well. It is beautifully packaged with a woodcut cover, and a little certificate for the purchaser in there too". Jeff Perkins said (at blogcritics.org) "As ideas for albums go this one really got my imagination working overtime. Nightingale Hall is a concept album in its truest sense. Oxfordshire's Lyrian take us back through a fascinating, sometimes enchanting, and sometimes disturbing journey written around the history and previous occupants of Nightingale Hall itself ... There are unashamed nods to early Genesis among shades of early Fish-era Marillion. That combines together nicely with some quintessentially English tradition, including church organs meshed with some folk and even classical elements ... As I traveled back through Nightingale Hall's gallery of characters they came alive, stepping off the canvas and into a nicely constructed piece of progressive rock". .... A recent review at www.musikreviews.de by Nils Herzog included the following (here in English translation): "Lyrian have invested their heart's blood in this album ... The first edition of 500 copies has a cover with wood-engraving by keyboardist Paul W. Nash, finely printed on high-quality paper. This presentation puts many professional products into the shade ... Nightingale Hall is an aesthetic work concerning the human history of the inhabitants of a country house over the course of a century. The instrumentation is rich, full and often classically-inspired, although Lyrian does not sound bombastic. The style leans strongly towards early Genesis and English chamber music, and reminds me in its medieval colouring also of The Fyreworks ... Guitars and keyboards contribute to the artful songs, which are often more like Tudor or early classical music than electric rock. The arrangements are led by the keyboards, which range from clear, concise, webs of sound to the sacred church organs which Progger hearts desire. The high, slightly nasal vocals will not be to everyone's taste, but fit well with the subject of the album: what denizen of a Victorian country house would roar like a leather-jacketed rocker? Blake's voice reminds me of a shy version of Neil Young. Lyrian do not only make beautiful music. Like many British bands, they attach importance to creating a landscape of dark, disturbing, spiritual sound, which sends a shiver down the spine, like the breath of a night-wind on the moon-illuminated hall from whose walls dark portraits of the long-dead look down. The results are very stylish and very British. Those who wish to shake their fists and bang their heads will not like Nightingale Hall. But those who take the time to read the lyrics and immerse themselves in the fantasy of this album, its 75 minutes of visions inside the head, will find it rewarding ... and entirely convincing." ...
Members
John Blake (lead guitar, guitars, mandolin, singing); Alison Felstead (bass guitar, singing); Paul W. Nash (keyboards, guitars, percussion, woodwinds, singing); Edgar Wilde (drums, percussion, singing).
Influences
Progressive rock of the more lyrical kind, and classical music ditto. Notably early Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Jethro Tull, Yes, The Electric Light Orchestra, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and such classical composers as the Bachs, Beethoven, the Russians (Borodin, Mussorgsky, etc.) and Mahler. Also some slightly more recent pop, such as Prefab Sprout, The Smiths, Everything But the Girl and Eminem.
Sounds Like
Nothing on earth (well, a bit like early Genesis, of course).

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Apr 25
Lyrian
listened to 3 songs
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Brick Lane
by Elliot Vanderhyde
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Tonight
by halogen
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Paris and you
by Elliot Vanderhyde
- Apr 25
Apr 15
Lyrian
played a song
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Lord of the Marsh (by The Blossom)
by Lyrian
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Apr 15

Lyrian

Lyrian's folk-rock offspring The Blossom have just uploaded a draft of one of their songs, called "Lord of the Marsh". I hope you might enjoy it ...
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Mar 11
Lyrian
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The Age of Gold (extract)
by Lyrian
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