Kiran Leonard

"A singular new talent is being forged" - The Guardian
"Leonard is an autodidact of amazing talent and energy" - Pitchfork

Kiran Leonard announces details of a new album Derevaun Seraun, set to be released 15th September on Moshi Moshi. It is the follow-up to 2016's acclaimed Grapefruit LP, his first for Moshi Moshi.

Lead single "Living With Your Ailments" is a seven minutes plus song inspired by Albert Camus' 1942 philosophy work The Myth of Sisyphus. "I read it for the first time as an unhappy, nervous 17-year-old and I found it deeply moving and comforting," says Leonard. "It is an essay about taking the cards we are dealt – mortality, nothingness, uncertainty – and doing our best with them, in humour and in optimism and in open-mindedness."

Leonard has also today announced details of a tour of England to coincide with the release, on which he'll be accompanied by a string trio to perform Derevaun Seraun in full. The dates includes a special night at London's St. Pancras Old Church on 20th September when there will be two performances (at 7PM and 9PM)

Read on for a full list of tourdates, and for Leonard's statement on Derevaun Seraun.

“DEREVAUN SERAUN” is a piece I wrote a couple years back in five movements for voice, piano and string trio. Each movement is written about a different piece of literature, exploring the value I see in each work and the impression it has made on me, and there is nothing more to it than that. The pleasure of books – of good verse and stories and ideas – is a very simple thing, and I felt that some lofty unifying theme for the entire piece would be a betrayal of that belief. I think that when a work resonates with you it is an instinctive response to something. You can be taught to understand a challenging book, but not to feel affection for it; I think a lot of conversation around art, especially around literature, sometimes forgets this. In my experience, the art I like the most, irrespective of its 'difficulty', is the art I can advocate most directly and plainly, and about which I can say: “I read this piece and now I do not read or think in the same way that I did before”, or: “This is a story that I could not explain to someone; I do not understand it word-for-word, yet I feel like innately I understand the whole, and that the whole spoke to me”. This is a piece about five books that I like and why I like them." - Kiran Leonard