London darkwave group Lunar & The Deception returned on September 18 with ‘The Great Bison’, their first new material since debut album The Somnambulist landed on March 6. Frontwoman Britt Xyra Dusk, a poet, activist and award-winning costume designer for film and television, channels her Irish and South African heritage into the band’s aesthetic and sound. The Somnambulist emerged from five years of writing, setbacks and remote collaboration, with Michael Rendall, known for work with The Orb, Peter Murphy and The Jesus & Mary Chain, delivering production that fuses intimate emotion with political themes.Their ritualistic live shows and literary approach have drawn comparisons to Esben and the Witch, Chelsea Wolfe, Fever Ray and Portishead. The project operates at the intersection of art and activism, weaving myth, resistance and reimagined history into performance. On September 23, they headline An Evening with Lunar & The Deception at The Hootananny, Brixton, presenting visuals, dancers, theatrical staging and support acts.
‘The Great Bison’, moves away from the album’s external themes and follows the journey of a soul into the afterlife with the help of a ghostly herd of bison whose stampede fades the line between life and death. The track opens in near silence, gradually building as strings swell, percussion intensifies, and vocals rise, culminating in a dense, cathartic peak that echoes the crossing it depicts. Here, loss is rendered as transformation; those who depart continue to shape the path ahead.
Lunar & The Deception had this to say: “It reminds us that love never truly disappears; it simply changes form, reminding us that although those we love may pass beyond our reach, they leave echoes that continue to guide us long after the journey has ended.”
Stream ‘The Great Bison’: