Lord Huron’s highly anticipated album Vide Noir is set for release this Friday, April 20th on Whispering Pines/Polydor Records. To promote the upcoming release, Lord Huron will be heading to the capital on May 9th for a one-off intimate show at The Lexington, as well as their planned UK tour in October, playing five shows across the country including a night at London’s Roundhouse.
On their latest single When The Night Is Over, singer, songwriter and producer Ben Schneider said; ‘We wanted this song to feel something like a Raymond Chandler story; a desperate search through a rain-soaked, neon-lit city. The groove section in the middle is one of my favorite passages on the album.’
Vide Noir was written and recorded over the past two years at Lord Huron’s Los Angeles studio and informal clubhouse, Whispering Pines, and was mixed by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips/MGMT). In conjunction with the album announcement, the band released Ancient Names (Part I) and Ancient Names (Part II), which received critical praise from NPR Music and SPIN who called them, ‘An eery, unresolved tale of a crystal ball vision that amplifies the band’s characteristic thematic darkness into distorted garage rock.’
Ben Schneider found inspiration wandering restlessly through his adopted home of LA at night: ‘My nighttime drives ranged all over the city—across the twinkling grid of the valley, into the creeping shadows of the foothills, through downtown’s neon canyons and way out to the darksome ocean. I started imagining Vide Noir as an epic odyssey through the city, across dimensions, and out into the cosmos. A journey along the spectrum of human experience. A search for meaning amidst the cold indifference of The Universe, ‘ he says.
As a true multi-media artist, Schneider has once again created an adorned world to inhabit within Vide Noir: the album will be accompanied by a wealth of imagery, films and immersive experiences crafted to expand upon its narratives and themes. This builds on Schneider’s past work, which used videos, a comic book, a choose-your- own-adventure hotline and assorted Easter eggs as means of deepening the listener experience.
Originally a musical and visual solo project by Michigan-native-turned-Angeleno Schneider, Lord Huron now includes members Mark Barry (percussion), Miguel Briseño (bass) and Tom Renaud (guitar). After a pair of independent EPs, Lord Huron released two full-length albums Lonesome Dreams (2012) and Strange Trails (2015) on IAMSOUND Records, followed by extensive touring and prestigious festival appearances both stateside and abroad. After appearing in the hit Netflix show 13 Reasons Why the band’s song The Night We Met (from Strange Trails) was officially certified Platinum in January 2018.
VIDE NOIR TRACKLIST
1. Lost in Time and Space
2. Never Ever
3. Ancient Names (Part I)
4. Ancient Names (Part II)
5. Wait by the River
6. Secret of Life
7. Back from the Edge
8. The Balancer’s Eye
9. When the Night is Over
10. Moonbeam
11. Vide Noir
12. Emerald Star
UK TOUR DATES
May 9th – London, Lexington
Oct 25th – Cambridge, The Junction
Oct 26th – London, Roundhouse
Oct 27th – Sheffield, Plug
Oct 28th – Gateshead, Sage Gateshead
Oct 29th – Liverpool, Invisible Wind Factory