Lior

Lior Attar (born 1976), better known simply as Lior, is an independent Israeli-Australian singer-songwriter based in Melbourne.

Lior was born in Rishon LeZion, Israel and he and his family moved to Sydney when he was 10. They made their first Australian home in Lane Cove, and Lior studied at Killara High School and the University of New South Wales.

Lior moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2007, to the suburb of Elsternwick.

In early 2005, Lior self-released his debut album Autumn Flow, certified gold by ARIA. It also garnered three ARIA Award nominations in the 2005 ARIA Music Awards: Best Breakthrough Artist, Best Male Artist, and Best Independent Release. The album was also nominated for the J Award, presented by Australian radio station Triple J, for the Australian Album of the Year. Autumn Flow has since gone on to become one of the most successful independent debut releases in Australian music history. In June 2015, Autumn Flow was re-released as a tenth anniversary edition.

Lior released his second album in February 2008, Corner of an Endless Road; again an independent release. The album debuted at number 2 on the ARIA Australian albums chart and was nominated for the Best Independent Release in the 2008 ARIA Music Awards. His third studio album Tumbling into the Dawn was released in 2010; the European compilation album 3-2-1 followed in 2011. He featured on Passenger's 2010 album, 'Flight of the Crow', on the track 'Rivers'.

Lior also composed and recorded a song, entitled "Hoot's Lullaby", commissioned for the ABC children's television show, Giggle and Hoot. In 2012 his song Hey Hootabelle, written and recorded for Giggle & Hoot, won the APRA|AGSC Screen Music Award for Best Original Song Composed for Screen.

Live performances

Lior has toured with the WOMAD festival in 2005 to the UK, Singapore and Korea. Lior also performed at the Spiegeltent throughout the world, and the Make Poverty History concerts in Australia.

In February 2006, Lior released a live album, Doorways of My Mind – Live at the NSC. This recording consisted mostly of versions of tracks from Autumn Flow as well as some new material such as 'Diego and the Village Girl', a traditional prayer (Avinu Malkeinu) and 'Burying Chances'. The album ends with a singalong version of crowd favourite 'This Old Love'. Autumn Flow was also nominated for two other ARIA awards at the 2006 ARIA Music Awards: Best Independent release and Best Blues and Roots Album.

In 2008, Lior toured extensively, both in his home country of Australia and abroad including feature performances at the Edinburgh Festival. In early 2009, he performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for a series of outdoor concerts.

In 2009, Lior launched the Shadows and Light tour, a collaboration with renowned shadow artists Stephen Mushin and Anna Parry. The Shadows and Light concerts are an interactive performance combining Lior's music with live shadow art performance and featured a season at the Sydney Opera House.

In September 2013, Lior appeared at the Sydney Opera House in Compassion, an orchestral arrangement of his own songs in collaboration with composer and conductor Nigel Westlake.

Lior played the part of Motel Kamzoil in Fiddler on the Roof at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre, which premiered in December 2015. In 2016, Lior worked with producer Tony Buchen to write an orchestral score for The Wider Earth, a Queensland theatre production based on Charles Darwin's journey on the HMS Beagle.

In 2012, Lior was listed as a supporter of the Oscar's Law campaign which protests against the factory farming of companion animals. He also works with the Cambodian Children's Trust and the Global Poverty Project.

Studio albums

• Autumn Flow (2005)
• Corner of an Endless Road (2008)
• Tumbling into the Dawn (2010)
• Scattered Reflections (2014)

Collaboration Albums

• Compassion (With Nigel Westlake) (2013)

Compilation Albums

• 3-2-1 (2011) (European release)

Live albums

• Doorways of My Mind (2006)