PYUR is the lustrous and spectral project of Munich-born and Berlin based musician Sophie Schnell. Gleaming with bright synths and pulsating pads, the experimental electronic music of PYUR takes listeners by the hand into lands unknown. On her latest album Lucid Anarchy (2024), on label Subtext, this generous sentiment of PYUR as a guide for the listener returns, as she wades further into sparse and unusual glades of harmony, texture, tone, and rhythm. 

Sounding at times like minimal, beatless rave music, PYUR’s songs are rich with life and movement: it’s a curious microcosm she has grown here amidst the soft noise, ethereal pads, and careful refracted melodies. Lucid Anarchy was recorded during a moment of personal and emotional change for PYUR, as she moved between the fast-paced world of Berlin and a small fishing village in Bretagne, then to the Jura mountains, and to an alpine village in Austria. The contrast between the wilds of nature and the alienation of human-built environments can be heard in PYUR’s approach to composition: oscillating between contraction and openness, the tracks flow as emotions do – across peaks and valleys and always toward the new.

Listen to Lucid Anarchy via Bandcamp:

PYUR performs live at Rewire 2024

Photo by Camille Blake