Metropolis Records is proud to announce that the Swiss quartet Lone Assembly is the latest signing to its growing roster of artists.
Blending new wave, synth-pop and darkly melancholic post-punk influences into music that alternates between drivingly intense and highly atmospheric, the group create powerful, captivating songs with emotional depth.
Having issued their first EP in 2024, followed by a further handful of singles promoted with live shows and festival appearances all over Europe, Lone Assembly have been carving out a unique space in the alternative music scene.
LP and CD formats of their debut album, ‘Knots & Chains’, will be made available in North America on 18th September 2026, but is available to stream now HERE. A collection of songs that explores connection, struggle, resilience and the ties that bind us, it is an album that showcases the band’s artistry and a record that has already been turning heads across Europe since its release in late February.
LONE ASSEMBLY | Knots & Chains album cover artwork
KNOTS & CHAINS
debut album
digital – out now
LP & CD
out 18th September 2026
(Metropolis Records)
includes
IN THE OPEN
video
LONE ASSEMBLY | In The Open video
When Lone Assembly released ‘That Never Happened’ in early 2024, an EP that paid tribute to a lost loved one, the group quickly became more than just a group of friends making music. It became a space for healing, a place of closeness, a necessity, facets that are even more apparent on their debut album.
Consisting of hymns of pain, alienation and sorrow, but also of hope, strength and courage, ‘Knots & Chains’ leans heavily into chiaroscuro, casting shifting light across songs born from profound darkness. The band uses each track as a means to examine control in its various forms. First, there is the control exerted by others, as in the unsuccessful attempts of the narrator of ‘You’re Pulling At The Same Strings’ to understand the evil that dwells within the other: “I’ve been wondering where your ache breathes, in mazes you design?” Then, there is the control we exert over ourselves, as in the captivating ‘The Pain Keeper’ and ‘My Life’s Solid’. And, finally, there is the control of places that also transcend us, as in ‘The City Works Like This’, where the city acts like a living organism, absorbing, rejecting, distorting.
LONE ASSEMBLY : The Pain Keeper | You’re Pulling At The Same Strings videos
While the topics addressed by the band are dark, glimmers of hope emerge in the form of a vital need for air, such as with the single ‘In The Open’. “The album takes shape like a cycle, moving from suffocation to openness, from closed spaces to greater, albeit fragile, breathing space,” explains vocalist Raphaël Bressler.
Musically, ‘Knots & Chains’ is characterised by an ’80s coldness akin to the golden era of Factory Records, but burnished with a modern production that aligns Lone Assembly with the crossover ambition of bands like Editors. The voice of Raphaël Bressler leads the way, captivating with its depth and gravity, while the soaring guitar of Glenn Le Meur and powerfully expansive rhythm section of Jim Bodeman (bass) and Romain Segu (drums) all combine to deliver a debut album that cultivates both high aesthetic standards and a remarkable pop appeal.
KNOTS & CHAINS
TRACKLIST
1 Call Of The Swift
2 Fantasy
3 Nocturmal Vision
4 The Pain Keeper
5 The City Works Like This
6 In The Open
7 My Life’s Solid
8 You’re Pulling At The Same Strings
9 Paler Streams
10 A Dark Score
LONE ASSEMBLY | 2026 photography by Margaux Fazio
LONE ASSEMBLY
Raphaël Bressler – vocals, keyboards
Glenn Le Meur – guitar
Jim Bodeman – bass
Romain Segu – drums
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