Lucy Liyou - Yska – A Need - A Want

Lucy Liyou’s music carries with it deeply personal poetry, in a literal and metaphorical sense, conveyed using sound collage, noise, field recordings, and abstracted pop tendencies. When Notice first heard Lucy’s music, we were struck by its incredible honesty, vulnerability, and originality. For her first collaboration, A Need/A Want, she is joined by Philadelphia-based guitarist and lyricist Yska. Bizarre shards of Yska's electric guitar permeate Lucy’s deft and supple production techniques as the sounds contained throughout the two pieces produce moments of confusion, bliss, and catharsis. Using text-to-voice and largely unprocessed singing, the duo's lyrics present a refreshing and striking potency: “I’ve only been there once; and only for a little while; she walked like lavender; swaying, leaning…”. Music this honest and also so carefully crafted is a true treasure, and A Need/A Want is a testament to musicians honing their visions in a very unique way.

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Written by Lucy Liyou and Yska. Piano and production by Lucy Liyou. Guitar by Yska. Mastered by Branic Howard. Artwork by Sludge Thunder

“A Want” contains a sample from “untitled” by Owen Sanger. Used with permission.

Available as 320k MP3 or 16bit FLAC

 
Tracklisting:
1. A Need - 16:10
2. A Want - 14:29

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"As pointed out in a February profileLucy Liyou’s music has an uncanny valley effect, primarily because she likes to use computerized voices in her sound art compositions. But disorientation and confusion emerges from her work in other ways as well, as she mixes pretty elements with woozy tones and shifting backgrounds. She’s found an excellent partner for this in Philadelphia-based guitarist and lyricist Yska, and on their first collaboration A Need / A Want, the pair make music that always feels slightly out of sync. On “A Need,” Liyou’s text-to-voice speech drifts around Yska’s notes like debris tossed into ocean waves; during “A Want,” piano melts into found-sound voices, then confrontational noise. All of this is realized with both seriousness and playfulness, another way that Liyou and Yska marry opposites to keep everything off balance." - Marc Masters