Compelled by collectivity, spirituality, consciousness and care, the Berlin-based, American multidisciplinary artist Lyra Pramuk has conceived a unique form of devotional music. It doesn't have to involve formal religion; to Lyra, devotion is the beating heart of her artistry, a way for her to harmonize the open-ended potential of the human voice with the magic of technology as it rapidly evolves. And it roots her latest album 'Hymnal', her own book of transformational worship songs. Exploring the ecstatic genesis of sacred ritual practices, it cultivates many of the themes introduced on her acclaimed 2020 debut 'Fountain'. Lyra draws from folk, house, techno, gospel and her formal classical education, working alongside the Sonar Quartett string ensemble to construct a symphony of the universe that coaxes listeners across dividing lines and towards mutual liberation. This same philosophy underpins pop.soil, her forward-thinking experimental hub and label, that deviates from the mainstream by prioritizing growth, cultivation and the exchange of ideas through physical and digital releases, online content, workshops, performances, and a bi-monthly cross-genre radio show on NTS. Frequently commissioned for film scores, sound installations and instrumental compositions, Lyra is also a passionate live performer who's staged ambitious shows across the globe, collaborating with dancers, a chamber orchestra and visual artists to create a collective and pluralistic form of musical worship. To put it in simpler terms: Lyra has faith in her devotion.
Collaborations and Commissions +
Lyra has an ongoing collaboration with visual artist Donna Huanca and also works frequently with Holly Herndon, Caterina Barbieri, Colin Self, and Ben Frost. In 2024 she released a cover of Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel” with Moses Sumney and Sam Smith for the NYC-based charity organization Red Hot. She has released original music with Caterina Barbieri and Courtesy.
Lyra’s classical acumen shines in her first major chamber composition Quanta, inspired by quantum perceptions of time. Other recent collaborations include her vocal turns for the film The Northman and Netflix series 1899, sound design for a multimedia installation with MFO for Berlin Atonal, as well as a recording with Soundwalk Collective, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Paul Preciado, that visualizes a “post-human future where sex, intimacy and desire are reformulated”. She also scored her first movie directed by Alessandro Roja “With the Grace Of God” presented at Venice Festival in 2023, and she has new film commissions coming each year. Lyra has collaborated with numerous fashion brands, including Marni, Valentino, Marine Serre, Bottega Veneta, and Hermès, with whom she curated a special performance with the dance collective (LA)HORDE. Since 2023 Lyra has been a resident on NTS, where she hosts her bimonthly radio show, pop.soil.
Live Shows +
Lyra’s live shows have been just as rigorously pruned and ripened. She's made over 100 performances since 2017, devising exactly what she needs from a space, an audience, and a stage. And although she likes to work with a relatively simple, limited live rig, using delay, feedback, reverb and pitch-shifting and pedals to alter her voice, Lyra emphasizes drama. Her performances are a collective ritual, rooted in Ancient Greek ideas of theater but transporting this into a speculative future; she's not there to be worshipped, but to lead a form of collective worship. Preferring to stage her shows in churches, cathedrals and purpose-built theaters, Lyra realizes that the space itself is an integral part of the experience, and shifts the sound just as significantly as an amplifier. She's already performed at Paris's Gaite Lyrique, London's Pitchfork Festival, Club To Club in both Turin and Milan, London's Southbank Centre, and Sonar in Barcelona. Her show at Berlin's Volksbühne showed off her full range with a team of dancers, she had a residency at NYC's MoMA PS1 in 2021, presenting her work with a full chamber ensemble, her debut A/V performance, presented at Sonar and titled 'Echoluminescence', featured custom theatrical lighting, and in 2023 she performed a private event for Hermès, artistically directing the event in collaboration with (LA)HORDE, and bringing wild horses onto the stage.
Lyra continues to experiment further with collaboration, working with a rotating cast of like-minded artists on improvisational, modernist folk performances. She has a trio alongside Berlin-based vanguards Dylan Kerr (aka Baptist Goth) and Jules Reidy, which she presented most recently at an outdoor concert of Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. In this format, Lyra is fully able to explore her passion for deep listening, and while the visual feeling may be less dramatic, the music itself is as dramatic as anything she's produced. She's also an enthusiastic DJ, and sees this side of her artistry as a way to draw indelible lines between all of her influences, from sacred music and avant-classical through to classic house, left-field electronics, and folk.
Studio Practice +
Pramuk's radical studio and compositional techniques have been developed over time, born from deep listening and rigorous study, both in the academic world and as a keen, dedicated technician. At this stage in her career, she sees her voice as a cyborg entity or a synthesizer; she's embedded in technology, and in conversation with it, not at odds. And just as a spider relies on its web to thrive, Pramuk is dependent on these modern tools to shape her voice into a bridge between the artificial and humanity, using digital tools and aesthetics as well as re-sampling to create new, surprising instruments and textures. This ties into her personal philosophy, and she cites the post-humanist theorist Rosi Braidotti - who speculates on decolonial feminism and the full recognition of non-human entities - as an influence. It's a way for Pramuk to find harmony between spirituality and art, highlighting the interdependence involved in using a rich and diverse set of tools, developed by groups of different people, to cultivate an ever-evolving sonic landscape.
Photo Credits +
Leonardo Scotti
Albert Barrut
Romain Guédé
Nat Urazmetova
Bahar Kaygusuz
Camille Blake
Alessia Naccarato
Mete Kaan Ozdilek
José Cuevas