Who is Lewis? The mysterious musician who simply disappeared
Within the music world, a multitude of conspiracies may be found, though only a scant few truly qualify as genuine mysteries. At first, the tale of the enigmatic character initially known solely by the alias ‘Lewis‘ may appear a little spine-tingling, but his choice to remain a ghost has since become a primary wellspring of curiosity and fascination over many years.
Lewis’ story seems like something that belongs to the eerie world of folklore. For starters, the liner notes that his label Light in the Attic wrote for his first album reads more like a horror story than an album description: It reads: “All that was known of Lewis is conjecture: a rumour that he was a con artist who fled after not paying for L’Amour’s photo-shoot and a dubious theory that he was not actually of this earth.”
To do Lewis’ story justice, it makes sense to start at the beginning. In short, it goes like this: in 1983, Lewis recorded an album called L’Amour, which was released on an unknown label called R.A.W. Despite the strange sticker on the cover that said, “This Album Contains the Hit Single ‘Romance for Two,’ Inspired by Christie Brinkley”, the album sank like a brick when it was first released. The song ‘Romance for Two’ wasn’t actually a hit, either. Not many people had listened to the album at all. What’s more, it seems very unlikely that Lewis and the model he mentions, Brinkley, had ever actually crossed paths.
And so, right off the bat, the truth is difficult to uncover because L’amour’s entire existence seems rooted in make-believe. For a long while, the album would be lost to the shadows until one day, a record collector called John Murphy spotted it at a flea market and was drawn to its strange cover. What awaited him was just as exceedingly odd: a sequence of languid, ethereal compositions that all shared a common element: a budget synthesizer set to an identical preset. Alongside this synth, the majority of the songs showcased Lewis delivering a haunting vocal with lyrics that were often challenging to decipher, accompanied by either a folksy guitar or a delicate piano.
It seemed completely outside of any preceding or subsequent time and space, appearing too introspective and delicate to be contemporary and too slow to be considered a singer-songwriter. L’Amour was then discovered by Light in the Attic, who re-released the record in 2014, but the artist still couldn’t be tracked down. Questions surrounding whether he was an alien entity – or a fabrication entirely – persisted. Even cult followers had absolutely no idea whether ‘Lewis’ was his real name or if he was connected with the novelist Louis L’Amour or even Brinkley.
However, soon enough, he was found. His real name was revealed to be Randall Wulff, but still, his whereabouts remained a mystery; even his nephew had no idea where he was. Although he remembered his uncle as a stockbroker and had a vague recollection of his apartment, any new details only led to more dead ends.
Then, after L’Amour’s reissue and a newly unearthed second album, Romantic Times, which included the name ‘Lewis Baloue’, Light in the Attic found Wulff, who is alive and well and living in Vancouver, Canada. However, it would seem that the singer doesn’t bother much with looking back to the past, much less worrying himself about royalties. “I wish you guys all the best. I’m not looking back,” he said.
Even more intriguing is that any opportunity to discuss his mystery albums often results in him quickly brushing it off. He might not have that much to say, but as someone who remained at large for many, many years, it’s strange that his revealed identity feels just as enigmatic as when he was nowhere to be seen.
Although he did admit that the moniker ‘Lewis’ came from his great-grandmother, he also revealed that he once hung out with George Harrison at the Chelsea Hotel, which begs the question: how did a seemingly unknown person find himself among the greats? Although he admits to still working on music, he remains aloof at the mention of Lewis, maintaining that those days were “a long time ago”.
