LAL’s eighth album and film project, SPECTACULAR, brings together amazingly talented artists whom they have worked with throughout the group’s 25 year history. Written in the second half of the pandemic, where COVID life continued up and down for two years in Toronto, LAL, (Nicholas Murray and Rosina Kazi) after 27 years of being romantic partners, decided that in order to grow and be better to each other and their music, needed to separate.

“#CovidLife! As the pandemic ensued for two long years, taking more and more lives, forcing us inside, yet again, SPECTACULAR began its inception, in the later part of lockdown, in Toronto,” says the band. “As LAL's founding members, we found ourselves going through both public and personal changes that would ultimately lay the building blocks for us to grow as humans but also thrive as artists, and our music would never be the same again.”

On SPECTACULAR, LAL says it was “born out of our time of extreme upheaval and uncertainty, forced us to work together to maintain, and transform each other as well as ourselves, for the better. Our trust in our friendship and love (though changed), had continued to move mountains, and add to the worlds we have already built to nurture and protect us for so long. The lyrics and music that came out of LAL as a result continues to manifest dreams and allow us to do what we do best. Because uplifting our love for each other, our fams and communities continue to find us strength in one another as we keep on being the artists, weirdos and people who find strength in ourselves.

For SPECTACULAR, LAL partnered with good friend and long-time collaborator Jose Garcia-Lozano to create a ‘Part 2’ to the Meteors Could Come Down album and film, which features new and old collaborators, who are all friends. Artists such as Ange Loft, Tannis Nielsen, Sedina Fiati, Hannia Cheng, B. Soloman, Victoria Mata, Franny Galore-Wngz, Erum Khan, Jaek Eastcott, Kai Jackman, Max Zimmerman, Gautam Pinto, Easy Life Studios, Plastique, Shireen Fahimi, Melissa Vincent, and Noel Nanton of Typotherapy Design, helped make this album and film magical. Also with Yann Gracia who conceptualized, directed, and filmed an amazing live performance video by the quartet, with support from Felix Mendelssohn.

Musicians Viktor kei, Ian de Souza, and Jonathan Adjemian added to the healing process of making this album. Jean Martin, who mixed and helped with the very new sound that Murr has created by intimate recording sessions, the sharing of files online, sampling and working with ROSINA, who wrote most of the songs by themselves, in the early morning.

This project is only a small reflection of the underground network LAL has cultivated for over 25 years. SPECTACULAR aims to celebrate each other, and the world that we have committed to, one that embraces love, equity, community, care, grief, anger, healing, fucked-up-ness and forgiveness.