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LYRELYRELYRE

by Laura Cannell

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dulcimerboy
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dulcimerboy I have always been curious about the old Anglo Saxon lyres and never really been satisfied with "living history" demonstrations. This is much more to my taste!
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    We have created a sustainably sourced card digifile CD album with gloss finish.
    It holds a full page of liner notes written by Laura based on her research into the Sutton Hoo Lyre.

    Includes unlimited streaming of LYRELYRELYRE via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 4 days
    edition of 275 
    Purchasable with gift card

      £14 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

      £6 GBP  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    67
    releases

    Get all 67 Brawl Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Compendium of Beasts Volumes 1 - 4, BRIGHTLY SHONE THE MOON, GODDESSES OF ICELORE, HAUNTLORE, DREAMLORE, A YEAR OF LORE SERIES 1 - All 12 EPs, THE VISIBLE LIGHT OF OTHER WORLDS, A Compendium of Beasts Volume 4, and 59 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £115.58 GBP or more (60% OFF)

     

1.
Wake the Slumbering Lyre 04:08
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2.
Beneath the Gorse and Bracken 04:12
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3.
The Power of Clouds Carry Me Through 03:32
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4.
A Ship Sunk in Earth 03:53
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5.
High Above the Sea Meadows 04:13
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6.
Battle Hymns 04:00
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7.
Keep the Beacons Burning 02:47
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8.
Slow Vessels in Still Water 03:12
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9.
Twilight Falls Again 03:04
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about

LYRELYRELYRE is the 11th solo album from Laura Cannell, the UK based Composer, Performer and Improviser. Cannell calls upon an ancient Lyre that was buried in the epic landscape of the Suffolk Coastline to sound once more. She wakes it from its 14 century
long slumber and coaxes it’s shrouded sounds onto her new offering.

Cannell delves deep into the history of the lyre, finding a way to bring this ancient instrument back into the landscape it once lived in and into her fold of feral chamber music. The Lyre lives again alongside haunting bass recorders and double reeded battle cries of the crumhorn.


Around fourteen hundred years ago, fragments of a six string lyre made from maplewood, gold and garnet stones was hidden in a ship and buried on dry land. There it remained until 1939 when it was unearthed from the burial mound above the sea meadows. The Sutton Hoo Lyre is one of the most iconic ancient instruments ever found, is thought to be the property and resting place of an Anglo-Saxon King.

LYRELYRELYRE is a journey into buried memories and unequal temperaments. It conjures the long dormant spirits and sounds of the people who played this instrument in mead halls and by fires in pre-christian England. A true ancestral sound, we can hear the timbre and textures of an instrument buried with royalty. It was used as an accompaniment to life, a way to pass on news of joy and anguish, a sound which represented and conjured human sorrows and deepest desires.

“This album is an offering to a history we were supposed to remember, but somewhere between the centuries it was lost deep in our collective folk memory, we forgot… The ship burial was supposed to be a beacon in the landscape. We were meant to remember who was there, but instead it slipped away as we farmed the land and cut trenches through the earth for our wars. All the time oblivious to a thread which was in front of us, a relic of pagan times, a true sound and link to the past. There has been much made of the other buried treasures, the Sutton Hoo helmet, the golden treasures, the shield and the ship but the lyre has a visceral connection. A physicality and a sound, a language and a feeling that enables us to truly feel connected to our predecessors when we strike the strings”. (Laura Cannell March 2025)

This 9 track album follows on from Cannell’s 2024 release The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined, making the 12th century seem positively modern in terms of music and lifestyle. Gorse flower dreams. Playing on a copy of the 7th century Sutton Hoo Lyre she takes inspiration from it’s fragmented remains and the evocative landscape hidden for centuries in plain sight.

The staccato of a gut strung lyre-hearpe, the hunting and battle cries of crumhorns and the sense of space evoked on bass recorder present and album with ever present sea mist. Shrouded sounds are emitted as Cannell delves deep into the history of the lyre, finding a way to bring this ancient instrument into her musical fold and questioning, ‘how many other instruments are buried beneath our feet?’.

credits

released May 30, 2025

LYRELYRELYRE was recorded, mixed and produced by Laura in March 2025 at her home studio in Suffolk.

Mastered by Mark Beazley - Trace Mastering
Published by Mute Song

The project was funded by The Marchus Trust.

The title was inspired by a conversation Jennifer Lucy Allan who wrote the words 'lyre lyre lyre' on a pink post-it note and thought it would make a great album title about 8 years ago - it planted this seed.

The title to track 8 'Slow Vessels in Still Water' taken from the book 'All Among the Barley’ by Melissa Harrison.

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Brawl Records UK

Brawl Records is an independent UK label est. 2005. It is run by musicians Laura Cannell & Andre Bosman. Brawl's releases have been reviewed & featured in The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, The Wire, The Quietus, MOJO, Songlines, Record Collector & more. They are regularly broadcast on BBC and internationally. ... more

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