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Lior.
 From the humble musical beginnings as the offspring of tone-deaf parents, Lior has perfected an amazingly clean vocal sound that glides effortlessly over complex melodies. "Year Five choir, that was when I worked out I couldn't sing," he recalls, "because I got told how bad I was. I think I realised then that I really wanted to learn how to sing, so I just really worked hard at it."
Lior has similarly put his current album 'Autumn Flow' together with a great deal of thoughtfulness and sheer labour. "I had a bag of tracks and basically did a pre-production period and it came down to the songs that the producer and I felt were the strongest and sat together well as a body of work. I mean, the album is diverse but we also wanted it to flow well." The resulting album is what the artist intended, and with it Lior establishes a unique sound which ties his works together. "They are quite lyrically focused and the lyrics do tend to have a personal emphasis on them."
Lior's easy-going nature seeps into his music. While he's one of many rootsy, male, solo acts out there at the moment, he stands out by drawing on his musical roots; infusing Middle-Eastern melodic styles and musical influences from the 60s with contemporary Australian alternative music. "Music probably is my spirituality, that is where I go into a higher realm, I suppose," he considers. "I guess that whole side of things relates to my heritage and my background both musically and personally."
Each individual song is nurtured lovingly though the recording process. From inception to completion Lior is thinking carefully about arrangements and instrumentation for each of his compositions. "There's always an element of trial and error with recording," he points out. "I mean, you think that a certain instrument would be appropriate but then you think 'No that's making it too country' or whatever, so then you start drawing on some other instruments."
Drawing on other instruments is just what Lior does throughout 'Autumn Flow', intermingling Western instruments with Eastern. Take Bedouin Song, for example: "I wrote it and had a very strong image in my head that I wanted some Eastern instruments on the album, and that song very much lent itself to having Eastern instruments. We played around with a few and the Oud [stringed instrument similar to the lute] seemed to be one that was appropriate."
Whilst the various guest musicians who appear on the album will not be able to attend the Adelaide show, Lior will bring with him core of the band that performed on the album. "Performing live, I love it. It's probably the most enjoyable part of what I do; I love the spontaneity of it," he enthuses. Indeed, as audiences of Lior's live gigs have said, Lior's empathy with his audience and obvious pleasure in what he does make him a masterful performer to see live. "I just like to have that direct connection with people and be able to have a chat with people and chat about the songs. I do tend to prefer rooms that are not too large because if it gets too big you kind of feel like you're playing to a backdrop rather than people."
His appreciation for his listeners (to whom he says "I love youse all!") also comes across in his satisfaction with the way his album has been received: "Triple J gave the album a go, particularly This Old Love, and it's flowed from there because of a great public response to it. I just think I'm proud that it has succeeded purely based on a genuine connection with the listeners rather than based on hype."
At the moment Lior is thinking about putting out a live album at the end of the year, but he also has a great deal of other things on the go. "After touring nationally I'm actually going to go overseas. I've been invited to play at the UK World Music festival which is pretty exciting, and the album is going to be released in Japan so I'll be heading off there." Much to the benefit of WOMADelaide goers, Lior has already been confirmed for the world music festival in 2006. Until then, we have 'Autumn Flow''s new single Daniel and his imminent Adelaide visit.
Emema Sifa
 | Lior plays the Governor Hindmarsh on Thurs 9 June. |
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