The Saint Leonard’s Horses frontman returns from a Himalayan mountain with a spiritual swirl of a new single, ‘Light Years’.

Saint Leonard, rising lyrical folk rocker returns from psycho-spiritual adventuring, with a new album of songs distilled from his experiences at the edge. Innerspace, outerspace, and sometimes extremely out of place, Leonard has left no stone unturned, nor no barroom lonely on the pursuit of his mesmerising, and at times, veil of maya lifting new sound.

After the release of his acclaimed album ‘Good Luck Everybody’ which was recorded in the mysterious location of Stanley Kubrick’s former estate outside of London, Leonard toured across the UK and Europe, with stand out shows supporting Patti Smith, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and three extraordinary sold out nights in Dublin with Father John Misty. The album received warm radio support from BBC 6 Music with Tom Robinson describing it as ‘ Brilliant, radically adventurous music from an extraordinarily talented artist ’ Q magazine awarding it 4 stars and the NME declaring it ‘a surrealist, mystical odyssey of self-discovery, maximal hedonism and Jaws of death revelation ’ Musical expeditionary Saint Leonard returns with a second album informed by travels to India, audiences with spiritual leaders and extraordinarily sartorial amphetamine-fuelled evenings living in a hotel room in Berlin.

Light Years

Leonard undertook a spiritual expedition to India and high into the Himalayan mountains, where he visited The Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh, studied Transcendental Meditation with the monks of the Kesar Devi Temple, was almost eaten alive by a rabid dog, encountered a tiger on a mountainside and finally had an unexpected meeting with an enigmatic spiritual leader. He subsequently returned to London with a strikingly diverse new collection of songs. Quickly putting together a line-up of hand-picked musicians, with the intention of recording with a whole new non-linear approach and soundscape. Leonard was invited into Paul Epworth’s Church Studio in Crouch End, accompanied by guitarist Josh Hayward of The Horrors, as well bassist Panda from TOY.

This single is the very first song he recorded there and is a polaroid of Leonard’s classic songwriting combined with the vanguard of non-traditional sounds and production. It’s a treatise on the complexities of contemporary life, the quest for psychological and existential meaning and a vision of Blakean eternity that can be found in the ‘space of one evening’. It is also in keeping with Leonard’s previous works in it’s poetic scope, wry humour and arresting visual range, and is indeed testament to the fact that he has ‘So very much on his mind’. It is a clear signpost to a new direction as an artist and heralds what may prove to be his most sonically and visionary landmark album to date.

Listen to the single and read the NME’s report here.