Lunar & The Deception return with The Somnambulist, their debut album released today via X-Ray Sound. Across eight tracks, the record moves between alt-rock, dream pop and darker atmospheric textures, building a sound that feels expansive without forcing itself into one clear genre. It arrives after they offered a first glimpse at the beginning of February with Your Monsters, setting the tone for a project that now fully unfolds.
Across the album, tracks such as No More Secrets, The Great Bison, Storm and Eclipse expand that sonic landscape, moving between restraint and intensity while keeping a strong sense of atmosphere. The Somnambulist often unfolds slowly, allowing space, texture and mood to guide the listener through its world. The result is a record that feels immersive from beginning to end, balancing moments of vulnerability with darker, more powerful passages.
At the centre of the album sits the focus track Ezeru Kazpam (The Curse of Money). The song opens with sparse piano and a spoken exchange reflecting on the role money has come to play in contemporary life. From there, the arrangement gradually grows as percussion and guitars widen the space, building tension before reaching a more explosive moment. It’s a track that captures the album’s dynamic clearly, moving between fragility and intensity.
The project was co-produced with Michael Rendall, known for his work with The Orb, Peter Murphy and Killing Joke. As the band explained, “We recorded the album in a secluded studio in Oxfordshire called Woodworm Studios. Originally set up by David Pegg of Fairport Convention, it is now run by engineer Stuart Jones, who did a meticulous job of recording the album with the added benefit of the unique acoustics due to the high ceilings — the studio having been converted from an old church.”
Lunar & The Deception’s path has already taken them through stages such as supporting Pussy Riot at Glastonbury, playing venues across London and appearing at the Sync Summit Music Conference. But what they are building goes beyond live shows or releases. Around the music, the band continues to develop a universe with a clear identity of its own.
A large part of that vision comes from vocalist Britt Xyra Dusk, who also shapes the visual direction of the project. With a background in professional costume design, she approaches the band almost as a living aesthetic world, drawing from mythology, ritual imagery and symbolic characters. That sensibility flows naturally into the atmosphere of The Somnambulist, where sound and narrative feel like different pieces of the same universe.