Over the next few weeks, I am going to look at sourcing new music to share with you. We are going to be home a lot, which means an opportunity to listen to new bands, DJs and musicians. This week I bring you…Black Lilys.
Black Lilys – Yaläkta
Indie Pop Folk duo release their new single 3rd April
Black Lilys is formed of a French brother and sister duo Camille & Robin Faure. Inspired by the beauty and sheer power of human resilience, they magically create a lush musical landscape in a sensitive, ethereal brew of ‘dark pop.’ Together they produce music that balances both strength and vulnerability, a smooth blend between Robin’s driving guitar melodies and Camille’s effortless husky, breathy vocals. Based in both Lyon and Edinburgh, the band release their first UK single ‘Yalakta’ on 3rd April 2020.
Black Lilys – the band
Born in the South of France and eventually settling in Lyon, the pair grew up in a very musical family. At home, their mother listened to Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel, while their father listened to rockier influences such as The Clash, Madness, The Stones and The Boomtown Rats. The influence of their mother, who was also a musician playing piano and guitar, was enormous. Camille started to play the piano in order to play like her mother and Robin played the guitar alongside her for many years. Camille says “She used to say ‘no matter the level you are, it’s something you can learn with time. What’s important is the emotion, the meaning or the intention you put in every single note’. It’s something we will never be able to forget. The emotion’s always the final answer.”
Phoenix reborn from its ashes
It was after the tragic loss of their mother in 2008 that the Black Lilys was ‘born’. In their grief, the siblings found they were not communicating and were growing apart. Camille asked Robin to be in a band with her in an attempt to reconnect and reestablish their closeness. She says “That’s how it started. While we couldn’t communicate with words anymore, we slowly started to talk through the music.” That is why the siblings identify with the idea of the ‘phoenix reborn from its ashes’ and the cycles of life and nature or, as Robin puts it, “we all need darkness to see the light.” So Black Lilys was born from the ashes of grief to create a beautiful, intimate, sonic soundscape, evoking both sweetness and sorrow.
La Ruche Le Label signing
It wasn’t long after playing various small venues that the duo was spotted and signed to La Ruche Le Label. They went on to tour extensively playing big festivals such as Festival ALUNA (w/ TEXTAS ), FESTIVAL Jeunes Aventuriers (w/ ZEBDA) and Festival Poupet ( w/GEORGE EZRA and THE DO ). Their first album “Boxes”, drew its influences from the work of Björk, Ben Howard, Angus and Julia Stone. Such was the intimate and unique beauty of this work, Netflix featured one of the songs “Nightfall” in their hit series ‘Elite’. The song subsequently reached over a million streams.
New single ‘Yaläkta’ (an imaginary word)
Black Lilys offers a strikingly unique sound with their pure, organic tones. Nature has always been a massive source of inspiration to the duo and in the last few years they wrote many new songs in Scotland, falling in love with the landscapes, beautiful skies and it’s untouched and wild nature. Their new single ‘Yaläkta’ (an imaginary word) was written in this kind of environment. Camille decided to invent a unique word, from an imaginary language. A word that would perfectly fit with the exact meaning of the song: about learning how to let someone leave. The song is also about accepting the tiny signs or messages in everyday life. As Camille says “There are many if we pay attention to them and it gives such a magical meaning to our existence.” Or as one of their literary heroes, Roald Dahl, famously said: “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”