The album

"We don't like to repeat ourselves too much and try to offer different albums each time. “Many miles away” was a classic song album, “Curve.Axis.Symmetry” a concept album, “Gostraks” an album of covers all linked together. It was time to try something else. And this something else is here, it’s « from above » !"

 - JP

"After C.A.S., a concept album, we went for a cover album to have time to recharge our creative batteries. We followed JP’s idea to make a tribute to old 70s album and have a "one side long" song and shorter songs on the second side. I know that it makes pretty much no sense nowadays in the era of streaming but that’s what we went for. The other strong idea for this one was to write music with the three of us in the same room for the first time.
Now that it’s done, we’re left wondering "What will be the big idea for the next one?". But that’s a question our future selves will have to answer. We, we just have to enjoy the present and be proud of "from above" (like this, no capitalisation!)"

 - Seb

"Interestingly, some people who follow us think we're a progressive band, but in our daily lives, we listen to very little progressive rock. Personally, I mostly listen to pop or rock, or even dance music. But when I put on the Lunear hat, I want to make a brutal turn and go back to my loves from when I was a teenager or young adult, when I listened to Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, and later Marillion, Pendragon, or IQ, for example (to name a few of the most famous). 'Curve.Axis.Symmetry.' was a first attempt to move towards something more ambitious. Beyond Art-rock. With this album, we haven't set limits and have developed songs beyond the classic verse-bridge-chorus structure. We've expanded on instrumental ideas. The result is tracks like 'Schrödinger’s Run,' 'Cathedral,' or 'The Tears Of Nostalgia.' Songs that are 10 minutes long, which are a musical journey, with various ideas, and with guitar or keyboard solos.
It's very likely that in the future we'll change things, maybe return to another style of songs, perhaps more direct (like 'So Let’s Go'), but this album will remain as our ‘classic’ prog album, and that's something I'm very proud of.
It hasn't been easy to make. Working in a band involves making many concessions, especially with three strong personalities like ours. But I always say, what the three of us achieve together, we would never have achieved separately. Just for that reason, Lunear is an incredible stroke of luck for me.
That being said, the fact that we managed to write 'In Their Eyes' in 3 days locked in a 12 square meter space says a lot about what we're capable of. And for the future, I believe our path lies in this new experience. Sitting down together, the three of us, and writing together."

 - Paul

In Their Eyes

"April 1st 2023 we met at Seb’s house in the sunny Provence to write a new song from scratch. Seb had written a lyric about a prisoner of war. The lyric was a very long journey. I had just proposed an intro working on a drum pattern written by Seb. That’s it. So we started working from that point. We had never done that and really didn’t know if it will work… 3 days later we had a 25 minutes song fitting the exacts moods of the lyrics. It was an enjoyable moment with Seb and JP. Seb behind the drums, JP with his guitar and me behind the keyboard and singing the ideas of the 3 of us. The ideas flow happily. All very exciting indeed."
 - Paul

"JP wanted us to write a 20+ minutes song for this album. So I wrote a long lyric. About the journey that is life and how I feel about it, getting old etc... Paul hated it. Maybe it was too personnel. Or maybe it was just bad. So I wrote an entirely new lyric, from scratch. I scraped the first idea and tried to tell a story… I’m not good at telling a story. Of course, that’s what I did for Curve. Axis. Symmetry. but it’s not something I’m confident with. So I did a first draft, then a second. And then I spent days, choosing words, rhymes, counting the numbers of foot of each sentence. This is, without a doubt, the more I’ve ever worked on a lyric. But I wanted it to flow and feel natural and epic. This is the story of a prisoner of war. Is it a journalist, a military, a civilian? A woman, a man? I don’t know. The answer is not relevant. I wanted to explore his or her feelings during the captivity. And then the escape. I don’t tell you the outcome of this espace in the lyrics, but there are clues in the music.
Musically, I don’t see it as a single song but as a suite. It’s really 5 different songs, there is just the chorus that is repeated between POW and Schrödinger’s run. This suite is a piece of proud for me, something we could never have achieved if we hadn’t been in the same room to write the music. Even the first part, written on a 9/8 drum pattern I had written specifically for the beginning of the record had to be reworked because I had changed all the lyrics… It was really fun to tell the guys « ok, this part means this and this is the kind of mood that we need to achieve for it » and then we would jam and record what we were playing. Once the mood was set, once the chords were found, we would try to sing the lyrics, find a melody… After three days of work we had a 30 minutes demo. Then I cleaned it and reduced it to 25 minutes (that was not a goal, I cut only what was needed, because we had redundant parts in the demo) and we began to record our parts properly. I remember coaching Paul’s vocals and telling him “you have to sing like there’s someone next room and you don’t want to wake him up“ for the 1001 nights part… I think that David did an amazing job mixing the song and that he managed to keep the spirit of the three of us in the same room. "
 - Seb

"I don't remember absolutely wanting a 20 minutes track, but I had mentioned the idea of ​​making an album like a good old prog vinyl with a long track on one side and shorter tracks on the other side. We had never done that and it seemed like an interesting challenge. Seb got to work on the lyrics, and each of us made demos, or at least threw out some ideas. In the end we kept practically nothing of these ideas (they were sleeping on a hard drive waiting for their time). The only one that remains in the piece is the percussive intro imagined by Seb. (another served as the basis for the bonus track, "Buried in the Sand". It was considered at one point as a track on the record but it didn't fit with the rest of the album.) So we didn't keep anything because we did something we'd never done before: writing together in the same room. I admit that I didn't think it would work so well. Because the result is there: a piece that perfectly reflects the cohesion and complementarity of the band. I find it hard to believe that we laid the foundations for this title in just 3 days."
 - JP

Cathedral

"I had written a song based on lyrics from Seb, but he felt that the lyrics didn't suit the song. In fact, since my initial demo was mostly on the piano, Seb wasn't initially enthusiastic about it. However, since JP liked it, we looked for lyrics that world better fit the song. Seb proposed the lyrics for "Cathedral," and from there, the song completely changed. We started reworking it first with Seb, at his place just before the sessions to write "In their eyes," to change the song's structure (there were rhythm changes everywhere). Later, I reworked the entire instrumental ending, and with JP, we worked on the final solos so that the guitar and synths complemented each other. Of course there are still rhythm changes in the song, but they flow more naturally. Seb and JP work hard to get that kind of flow in our songs when I wouldn't mind having more pronounced rhythmic breaks. "
 - Paul

"I always have lyrics in stock. JP and Paul can pick one and start working on a new song whenever they want. But, despite what is often said, my lyrics are not always THAT obvious… When Paul picked a lyric for working on the music that would become Cathedral, he misunderstood completely what I had in mind. And the music wasn’t in the right mood to fit the lyrics. You can judge by yourself if you want because those lyrics where then used to write So Let’s Go. Paul tried another lyric, called « I Used To Love The Rain » but it wasn’t the right fit either. He then suggested that I could write about something I was dealing with at the moment. I did. But following his instructions I wrote something that was too obvious and frankly not good enough. So I ditched it, and started again… And that was Cathedral. I don’t know if someone will ever get what the song is about but it doesn’t matter. I like it this way.
Musically it’s interesting because we struggled a lot with this one. I’m happy I proposed a different melody for the second half of the song, it really enlightened the music. And the final part with the synth and guitar is just splendid. I had a lot of fun playing drums to it. I recorded it when the guys were Home and JP said  “it’s a good drums track“ at the end. It meant the world to me. "
 - Seb

"“Cathedral” was quite a complicated piece to finalize. The rhythm changes seemed too abrupt to me, it needed to be more fluid. We spent quite a bit of time there. What was also complicated was finding the right balance between the melodies and the more decorative elements like the arpeggiators, as well as the right balance between synth and guitar on the final solo. David was super patient and came back to the mix a number of times to find the balance. It was the first track he got to mix for us, and it was quite a hazing."
 - JP

So Let's Go

"JP had the idea of writing a song with a chord structure that wouldn't change and would gradually intensify throughout the song. I found the chords interesting, but we couldn't achieve the desired build-up in intensity with them. We knew we had written relatively long songs for the album, so we also needed a more direct, simpler song. In the end, that wasn't really the case. We kept the original chords for the verse and added different bass lines for a the first part of the bridge. We also wrote three other small parts that flow naturally and contribute to a powerful chorus."
 - Paul

"JP wrote the music for it. And he sang a melody. I knew it was the right fit for my lyrics so I tried to sing a guide vocal matching his melody. I think I managed to respect most of it. Then Paul sang and changed the melody again a little bit. That was not a difficult song to write but we had to work on the arrangement, the key change, the link between the first and the second half. In the end, it’s a very joyful song with a lot of energy. It stands out in the album and is an obvious single but it is also a welcome breath between the two mastodons that are Cathedral and The Tears of Nostalgia. And I think that it is the first time that I have recorded bongos for Lunear… That was fun !"
 - Seb

"My demo was quite different, whether in instrumentation or intention. I had in mind a more progressive and epic piece, built on a loop of 9 immutable chords, violins, distortion... But that would have made a third long piece for the B side, and in any case Paul can't not sing a song where there are no chord changes, it's in his contract. His additions and changes bring a lot to the track. In the end I'm happy with the result, it's a nice pop song, with just the right amount of sophistication."
 - JP

The Tears of Nostalgia

"I remember that Seb had written a very simple song with very few chords and 6 repeating verses. The melody of the vocals was superb, but the song deserved better accompaniment and a structure that would allow it to reach a kind of ecstasy. So, I rewrote the music while retaining the melodic singing line that Seb had written, and I added an instrumental section in the middle of the song to achieve this climax."
 - Paul

"So, I had this song, a beautiful melody with guitar arpegios. As usual, Paul changed almost all the chords. I think he kept the first three ones and changed every chords after. I don’t mind. I still think of it as “my“ song, just like I think that Cathedral is his and So Let’s Go is JP’s. At some point during the writing of the song we had an intro and an outro and I can’t really remember why but we decided to cut them off. But nothing is ever wasted in Lunear, as we are a very responsible and ecofriendly band: those intro and outro were recycled and are now the intro and the outro of Cathedral! I love this song, I’m very proud of the bass and drums in the central part, it really works, it’s really powerful and it’s a big Lunear moment. I’m very proud of this song (I’m very proud of the album too, of course) and I think it’s the perfect way to end the record… "
 - Seb

"Seb's initial version had great potential, but it was too repetitive. Paul's changes to the structure of the song, and then everyone's additions, greatly improved the song. I am thinking in particular of all the arranging work to be able to increase the tension on the verses, to enrich and diversify the instrumentation to break the repetitive side. I also found that the beginning of the song was too reminiscent of the beginning of "so let's go": an acoustic guitar arpeggio. So we hide that a bit by adding a bell sound and an effect on the guitar. The central musical passage is among my favorite passages of the disc. I particularly like the groove of the bass drums, then the way in which the guitar and the synths respond to each other, with the reprise of the verse with the Hammond organ in the background. It was a lot of painstaking work to be able to get that into the mix, thanks again David."
 - JP