LYCIA
Cold, the fifth full-length recording from Arizona-based ethereal darkwave act Lycia, is a journey through slow-motion abstraction thematically centered on the ambience, both environmentally and emotionally, of winter. It’s stark isolationist character and emphasis on minimalist foundation is somewhat of a deviation from previous works that offered a broader dimension of sound through exercises in spacious electronica, industrial psychedelic pop, and dark ambient. "I don’t think I will ever feel the same This music is slow in movement, pulsing into transitional phrases to awaken images of barren, snow-covered fields, ice-coated tree branches, frosty windows, and the clarity of a crystal clear winter morning, when the new day’s sun shines pale on fresh snow. Understated bass guitar and prominent yet minimal programmed percussion support a soundpicture developed by floating synths, drifting ambient-guitar, and distant voices breathing like soft whispers and angelic revelations through frozen dreams. The experience afforded by the sound brings the listener to an affirmation of life as it is affected by environmental conditions. Layers emerge in gradual motion, while a song’s focal theme forms an essence of composition, presenting consistent evolution through the song’s unfolding sequences. The slow coldness that defines these songs creates beautiful profundity in the portrayal of life’s precious fragility, enhancing wonder at a world of cyclical function. Remarkable clarity of artistic imagination and atmospheric expression fills every aspect of this work. Yet what truly elevates Cold beyond a mere collection of songs towards an actual experience is the persistent sensation of the meaning of a season such as winter, taking in the entirety of seasonal fluctuation as a process that sustains our world and in such magnificent order. This is most strongly evident when Van Portfleet’s processed guitar blends with washes of synth to emphasize a particular feeling, as in "Bare" and "Drifting". Perhaps the disc makes its strongest impact, however, during "December", through the song’s powerful and humbling employment of minimalist isolation where silence is used as an instrument to create slight suspense and sensations of lonely coldness before flowing into the song’s departing theme. The weight of life’s burden is given sound here, and presented in stark beauty that supplies it with a meaning easily forgotten under the crushing weight of demanding and conflicting emotions. The sound here is mostly related to pure ambience than anything else from this band. Everything present in terms of instrumentation, compositional structure, atmospheric development and sustainment, and general flow through the course of the work’s duration operates with the ultimate intention of creating an experience through sound. The music is contemplative, reflective, introspective, and deeply moving. The presence is remote, finding comfort in solitude where one can uninterruptedly get to the essence of inner truths and rekindle a relationship with base fundamentals too often disregarded in busy days. Repetition towards mood establishment works in subtle form to communicate an enriched experience of aesthetic pleasure and meditation of the soul. The drifting, sometimes hazy, always glorious melodies distinguish themselves as individually significant as well as imperative to the realization of completeness for each song, reflecting the independence of the human spirit in a world it cannot be separated from until life pulses no more. "This night sky seems so pure As a presentation of entirety, Cold is Lycia’s most cohesive, purposeful, beautiful, and emotionally intense offering. The disc is absolutely stunning in its vision of melody and atmosphere, working dark and cold moods into ethereal passages of glistening ambience. As winter is the most contemplative of seasons, and most appropriate for self-reflection while things are dead and frozen for a time, the music of this disc is highly effective when absorbed in early morning winter hours, or late nights in chilly stillness. In the understanding and appreciation of what the function of our lives and world mean as one holistic process, works such as this express the harmony of nature imperative to all life, and no matter how ignorant we become with our infatuation with technology and industry, nothing can conquer the truth of our natural world. 10/25/06 Tracklisting: 1. Frozen
Lycia The ever-evolving examination of worlds beyond the realm of physical limitation continues for Lycia on Estrella, an album of nebulous ambience generated in songs of cosmic pop melodies floating over trance-inducing percussion and synth in circuitous motion. Structures and moods ascend to descend as if the burden of sustain is much too overwhelming to bear, resulting in a sound-presence of stubborn discomfort. From the haze, formulations in cyclic transience softly come forth in curious machination, whirling towards netherworlds of distant imagination. Simultaneously comforting and unnerving, the music revels in its identity of enigma. The strangely angelic-yet-haunting voice of Tara Vanflower claims a stronger presence of vocal expression than on Cold, ranging from tormented tones to girl-pop melodies frequently offsetting the space-y aura of the music with a demented enchantment. Mike Van Portleet’s whispers in spoken expression provide buried revelations drowned in alien atmospheres, cold and seemingly indifferent, yet knowledgeable of what lies beyond the horizons. Mysterious in a kind of seductive unfamiliarity, these voices swirl in and out of the ambience of the music, distant and fading, shifting and alluring. As always the case with this act, everything is present for the sole intention of creating a mood, and the sincerity with which this is accomplished assures convincing results. "I remember when I was just a little child Unlike the minimalist Cold, Estrella presents a broad sound-picture with more active percussion and variety of mood. These are songs of nightsky wonder in wide open desert fields. The disc lacks the consistency of flow that Cold beautifully established, and instead seems intent on altering the listener’s mood from song to song. Abstract guitars and celestial synths create washes of multilayered sound, dark and intriguing, ethereal and foreboding. The music yearns for the unknown, and encourages focused contemplation even through its more uncomfortable passages. Two songs in particular stand out: the title track, and "Silver Sliver". Each offers a spacious soundscape of forlorn emotion, with Vanflower’s dreamy voice soothing the sadness along with heavenly synth lines enveloping the listener in a sea of emotions. These two stargazing tunes are where Estrella reveals its most valuable secrets, with everything before and after them coming across as hints of what is to come and elaborations through departure. This is night music for weary souls. It is cold and lonely, but also curious and imaginative. The disc mostly dwells in the darkwave and ethereal ambient realms, but has a character of independence that easily separates it from any clearly defined factions. The sound is sedating in its eerie beauty, unfolding in deceptive frailty. Bright, even in its darkness, and complex through its repetition, yearning for the mysteries of the galaxy. Lycia create soundtracks of outflow towards the surrealistic journeys foreign to our functionary day-lives, yet inspired by the heavy motionless night. 10/27/06 Tracklisting: 1. Clouds In The Southern Sky Lycia Discography Wake (Projekt, 1989) |
