a lazarus soul were recently presented an IMRO Award in recognition of their album No Flowers Grow In Cement Gardens.
The IMRO Number 1 Award was introduced to acknowledge IMRO members who reach number 1 in the album charts here in Ireland.
“No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens” is the follow-up to 2019’s much-loved “The D They Put Between the R & L”.
After a long gestation period, the band (Brian Brannigan, Anton Hegarty, Julie Bienvenu & Joe Chester, half of whom live in Ireland, half in France) convened in Miracle Studios, Rennes, for four days of intensive recording, live, together in a single room, their first opportunity to do so since global events had kept them apart for two years. The session, a fury of largely improvised and incendiary versions of ten brand new Brannigan-penned songs, forms the basis of this new record which also features guest contributions from legendary violinist, Steve Wickham.
The album was recorded and mixed in France by Joe Chester.
“No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens,” (named after a line from The Fall’s “Psykick Dancehall,” aptly, as this line-up of a lazarus soul came together specifically for a 2011 tribute to that band) is a meditation on wilderness, nature and spirit.