Son Lux is essentially Ryan Lott, a classically-trained musician and composer who has written music for various projects.  But beginning in 2008 Lott also began to release music under his nom de paix, Son Lux.  In all candor, we somewhat missed the boat on Son Lux until recently when Lott collaborated with Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti on the worthy Sisyphus project.  Prior to Sisyphus, Son Lux released Lanterns last year, and many believe it his/their best collection of songs yet. The album featured the likes of The Antlers’ Peter Silberman, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, DM Stith, and others.

Fast forward to this week when Son Lux released the inspirational and affecting official video for the album’s Lanterns Lit, which you can watch below.  The video was directed and produced by SJ Finlay who writes this about the video:  “This music video was made while shooting a short film to help children at risk in South East Asia. To keep updated about the release of that film and the project, search for #ChildrenofChange.”  The song and video are perfectly matched.

Afterwards, watch a sensational solo-piano rendering of the same song for Soundcheck.  As you will hear, Lott’s perfect siren-singing makes his collaborations with the similar-sounding Sufjan Stevens and Peter Silberman make even more sense.  The song and performance are beauty defined.

You can buy Lanterns HERE.