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Estrella
CD Album 2005 | Silber 040 11 tracks 57 minutes $12 ($18 international, $5 download (256 kbps, ~102 megs)) : Press Release Track Listing: Clouds In The Southern Sky, El Diablo, Tainted, Tongues, Estrella, Dome, Silver Sliver, The Canal, The Kite, Orion, Distant Fading Star |
Estrella,
originally released in 1998 by darkwave pioneers Lycia, has been brilliantly
remastered by Mike VanPortfleet & includes the original intended artwork
for the album. Being the owner of the original & the re-issue,
the difference in sound quality is nothing short of astonishing.
The wailing keyboards of “Tainted,” to the screaming sirens of “Dome,”
to Tara Vanflower's most amazing vocal performance on “Estrella,” the album
shimmers with renewed quality & brilliance. This re-issued album
is, in my opinion, Lycia's finest moment, & hopefully not final hour.
This album is an absolute must have for everyone.
~ David Poseidon, Gothic
Beauty
As well as releasing solo
albums by Lycia's Mike VanPortfleet and Tara Vanflower, Silber have also
put out Lycia's final unfinished album Empty Space, and are now reissuing
all five of Lycia's previous studio albums. A remastered version of Estrella
is out now on Silber, accompanied by the artwork the band had originally
intended for the album. This album combines the darkness of gothic music,
the grandiosity of orchestral-oriented progressive rock (there is no real
orchestra on here, but it just has that feel about it with its lushly textured
and extravagant atmosphere), the ethereal nature of dreampop, and ambient
washes of sound. All this is added to with a variety of vocal styles from
both band members, from sombre murmurings to impassioned wails. The vocals
are used to express words and to provide wordless vocalisations, using
the voice like another instrument. The sound here is more musical, less
overtly experimental than Tara and Mike's solo material, but is still loaded
with creativity. Whether Lycia opt for an elegant atmospheric sound or
one that's more menacing, the music is always engaging.
~ Kim Harten, blissaquamarine
It is interesting to hear
the lengths to which a band will go to convey an intended mood. Some
bands growl and bark at the listener, hoping, with often feigned sincerity,
to share their torture. Some musicians pluck an acoustic guitar and
sing with their eyes closed. Others don’t sing at all.
It might anger some musicians
to realise the simplicity with which a given mood can be established.
It doesn’t always take an excessive repetition of a line or a blunt condemnation
of vague lies and that ever-present darkness (if you’re going for an upbeat
atmosphere, then that’s an entirely different story.)
Lycia consists of two people:
Tara Vanflower on vocals and Mike VanPortfleet on guitars, drum and synth
programs, and vocals. While there are certainly multiple layers to
the music on this remastered version of 1998’s Estrella,
there is a simplistic quality – the steady drum beats, the carefully articulated
guitar notes, the breadth of Vanflower’s voice – which outsmarts the overly
deliberate efforts of heavier music. I listen to this album and believe,
without Vanflower or VanPortfleet necessarily telling me, that there is
some tiny anguish lines and illustrated by the intentionally obscure imagery
within the album booklet (based on a painting by Armando Norte): soft glows
and a woman cloaked in black, her eyes punctuated by a blue-green haze.
Of course, I could be completely
wrong; Lycia might not be sad, pissed, or frustrated at all. But
their music provokes melancholy with only a few light brushes, a couple
small notes, and that ability is truly impressive.
The album opens with “Clouds
In The Southern Sky”, its engaging keyboard line a well-chosen introduction
to Estrella. Vanflower enters on track two, “El Diablo”,
singing in her delicate voice, “See the serpent twine / wrapped around
her spine / coils inside her mind / bleeds her eyes so blind.” Vanflower’s
style, marked less by precise enunciation and more by moody voice inflections,
creates a layer among the percussion, synths, and guitars. When her
lyricism suffers from sloppy wordplay or stale imagery, Vanflower’s voice
helps sustain the mood and purpose of the song.
Track five, “Estrella”,
is a beautiful display of Vanflower’s vocal range and of VanPortfleet’s
ability to complement and enhance that voice with synths and percussion.
The two create a captivating melody, moving around each other in constant
dialogue. “Silver Sliver” features some of Vanflower’s most intriguing
lyrics: “Aqua smile blue rhythm pulse me you / Molten syrup flows through
veins / Twilight sprinkled a zillion eyes shine few / Lava consume cool
numb and trancing view.” The distinct images, laid among VanPortfleet’s
synth lines and a wonderful rhythm section, create one of the strongest
songs on the album.
The album closes, like
it opens, with an instrumental track, “Distant Fading Star”. Its
deep melody and curious drum beat conclude the album beautifully.
If Estrella
benefits from its atmosphere and consistency, then it is those same qualities
which may deter some listeners. Melodies blend among the tracks,
and one, even two, listens is not enough to discern the differences among
the songs. If it were though, would Estrella be as
acclaimed an album as it is, described in the press kit as “a classic that
transcends genre barriers”? Certainly Lycia has achieved what so
many bands constantly struggle to create: a complex mood delivered simply.
~ Brad Hirn, SickAmongthePure
Rarely do I find myself
so positive about a release, with the re-issue of Lycia's latest in a re-mastered
version I have re-encountered te pure aural pleasure I had when first hearing
this album. The band which holds obvious references with Cocteau
Twins brought with this album the closing chapter of Lycia delivering such
pearls as "Tainted" which remains the perfect Lycia song. Perhaps
not surprisingly "Tainted" handles about Mike VanPortfleets health falling
apart & its emotional impact on him while it was happening. Estrella
is already because of this one of the most personal albums from this seminal
USA act. Out on Silber Records you can also expect the 4 other Lycia
albums to be re-released, all in a re-mastered version. Obligatory
for every Cocteau Twins fan & beyond.
~ Bernard Van Isacker,
Side-Line
In many circumstances, when
the word "goth" comes up in discussion among fans of indie music, there
is an intense shutter and dismay. Most likely, this is due to the culture
goth music has indirectly spawned. Yet, as many people forget, there is
a goth culture, like its cousin punk, that's deep rooted in music as an
outlet for those who are musical genuises and social outcasts. So please,
read on, as the gothicness of Lycia is has nothing to do with Hot Topic
and preppy, whiney teenage girls (or boys) hidden beneath a few layers
of black makeup.
Estrella is a classic gothic
darkwave album from Lycia that has been recently remastered and rereleased.
Its original 1998 release already made it a somehat classic. Yet, with
the remastered work, supposedly how it was intended to be originally released,
them album is, in my opinion, on of those cult albums for genre completists.
In this album, Lycia, which has always been led by Mike Vanportfleet, delivers
with a trippy and hauntingly beautiful album complete with chilling vocals
from Tara Van Flower. Vanportfleet was very Eno-esque in the production
of this album. In fact, Estrella is just as much of an ambient/electonica
album as it is a darkwave album.
For instance, the opener,
"Clouds in the Southern Sky," begins with an Eno-esque hum then clears
way for soundtrackish sounds that are best described as an anxious yet
soothing build up of sounds, similar to what made the Cocteau Twins so
popular. The opener then transfers into "El Diablo" so brilliantly. Van
Flower's vocals expand like a siren's; even Odysseus would have never been
able to resist. The rest of the album is an ambient fest complete with
Vanportfleet's and Van Flower's vocals, synths, drum loops, and effect-driven
guitars. My favorite song on the album is "Orion," a slow scorcher best
suitable for cold late-night stargazing.
As with Eno, turned up
really loud or practically muted, this album is a listening experience
that only few bands can accomplish without going the traditional rock route.
With this remastering, Estrella has become a cornerstone for all of Lycia's
releases, and it remains as one of the best ambient gothic darkwave albums
I have ever listened to.
~ Jason Wilder, Delusions
of Adequacy
Already more than a week
I intensely enjoy listening to this album late at night before i go to
bed.The music is deliciously languid and relaxing. The vocals are enchantingly
beautiful and sometimes seductively cool. The guitar-walls are lush, yet
breakable and the atmospheres go into ethereal darkwave and more exotic
regions. Lycia makes orchestral guitarmusic of a hypnotic beauty for years
now. Estrella is a re-release of the original last proper studio album
from 1998. This release has been fully remastered by Lycia frontman Mike
VanPortfleet and looking back in time this release could be labeled a real
classic. It is on this release that Tara VanFlower fully took the role
of primary vocalist enhancing the fanbase of Lycia more and more. This
is a recommendation for anyone not yet familiar with this cd or the work
of Lycia but who does have a love for the sound of the once popular 4AD
bands like Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance or Lush.
~ TekNoir, Gothronic.com
The first time I heard Lycia,
it was on a free sampler I received from Projekt, perhaps the premier darkwave/goth
label of the 1990s, and perhaps the only label that was making a very serious
attempt at following in the footsteps of esteemed British label 4AD. I
don't remember what Lycia's song was, but I do remember that they sounded
quite different than their labelmates, and that unlike other bands, they
really didn't seem concerned about fashion or image, and the song sounded
more like Aphex Twin than The Cure or This Mortal Coil. I thought their
song was rather stunning and beautiful, but admittedly, I never did follow
through.
Listening to the recently-reissued
, the band's final album (and the first release in a Lycia reissue program),
it's quite clear that Lycia was a different sort of band. The duo of Mark
VanPortfleet and Tara VanFlower combined their strengths to make music
that was haunting, beautiful and stunning, and in this goal, they were
quite successful. Estrella found the band at a creative high, and the result
was a record that lured the listener and took them into other realms of
aural ecstacy. From the tribal "Tongues" to the Harold Budd-like "Clouds
in the Southern Sky" and from the transcendent bliss of "Estrella" to the
melancholy "The Kite," Lycia exploited the term "atmospheric" to the hilt--and
the result was heavenly. Comparisons to The Cocteau Twins were and are
inevitable, and while VanFlower's voice never quite reached to Liz Frasier's
vocal heights--that's an impossible goal, anyway--her voice, in combination
with VanPortfleet's stunning Robin Guthrie-inspired accompaniment, certainly
justfied the comparison.
If you're not familiar
with Lycia, Estrella is as excellent a starting point as you could
find, because this record's beauty is a perfection that most bands could
only dream of obtaining. Hopefully the forthcoming reissue series will
illuminate this gorgeous darkwave band, and deservedly so.
~ Joseph Kyle, Mundane
Sounds
Lycia’s classic darkwave
album Estrella sees a re-release and re-mastering in 2005 courtesy
of Silber Records. Mike VanPortfleet himself has re-mastered the album
to give it a much more state-of-the-art sound, which I’m assuming the original
slightly lacked. Unfortunately I never heard the original version of the
album so I really can’t say whether or not it sounds different. Either
way though its good that Lycia’s albums are being re-released as Silber
plans to release the other studio albums from Lycia as well.
After releasing Cold
my favorite Lycia album in 1996 the band returned in 1998 with another
excellent album titled Estrella. Although the band stuck to there
same distinctive darkwave style with this album I still can’t help but
think it has a much more different feeling than some of their previous
releases. To me Estrella has a much more mysterious atmospheric
feeling to it whereas Cold for example had a very, well Cold sound
to it. Estrella also at times has more of a calm tranquil soothing
sort of quality to it, which I really like. Another interesting aspect
of the album is that Tara Vanflower‘s vocals are a much bigger part of
the recording since they appear on nearly every song, while Mike’s voice
isn’t used much at all. David Galas also for some reason disappeared from
the band for this release, but then returned to the band in 2003.
There really are quite
a few good songs on this album, but I tend to enjoy the wordless ones where
Tara just uses her voice as an instrument the best. Songs such as ‘Tongues’
or ‘The Canal’ are really mystifying and eerie sounding to me. I also like
‘The Kite’ since its one of the better songs with Mike at the vocals and
again it is very dark and unsettling, but still has a serene feeling to
it. In general though Estrella is a great album from Lycia and again
it’s nice to see their releases getting re-released and re-mastered.
~ Blackwinged, Lunar Hypnosis
Lycia has re-released their
last album, Estrella. This album is breathtaking, to say the least.
Called “Dark Wave” by Silber Records, this album recalls the glory days
of the Cocteau Twins. Lycia released their final album at the end of the
1990s. Being made up Tara Vanflower and Mike VanPortfleet, Lycia creates
dark, moody ambient pieces that are enigmatic and emotive.
“Clouds in the Southern
Sky” begins the album and leads the listener into the world of Estrella.
It is a slow tempo track with simple drums and wonderful layers upon layers
of wistful keys that create a luscious soundscape. “El Diablo” also has
a beautiful, haunting melody. Vanflower offers her vocals mixed in among
the waves. The drum work and vocal work remind me of those Cocteau Twins
moments when they were most haunting. This track is about a serpent, the
Devil, who has a woman captive in his convincing grip. What is awesome
is the ability, not only of the lyrics to convey darkness, but the lush,
haunting darkness that is contained in the music to match them. “Tainted”
is a slow, patient piece that creates a somber mood with VanPortfleet on
vox. His vocals feel very gothic amidst the dramatic mood created by the
music. The song is about the loss of innocence and hope.
“Tongues” starts with tribal-like
drums. The spacey sounds come in and then Vanflower releases the power
of her voice. It’s gorgeous, especially when she really lets it go. In
this track, her voice is used as an instrument among the floating keys.
“Estrella” is a heavenly song that actually brings a bright spot in the
album. The lyrics speak of love and, perhaps, being intertwined with another
whole-heartedly. “Dome” is epic sounding, with what sounds like angelic
voices floating through deep, low hums. This track really has a breathy
feel to it that is beautiful. This is perhaps my favorite track on the
disc. “Silver Silver” starts with a light feel. Perhaps, having found love,
the bliss continues for Lycia. Again, this is a breathtaking take that
floats along and is light and really counter-balances the dark parts of
this album.
”The Canal” begins with
some drum work and works into a more ambient, listful feel that is powerful
and epic. There are even some eastern sounding chords and tones in this
track. Vanflower really lets her voice soar on this track and it’s amazing.
“The Kite” flows back into the moody, somber tone that was prominent in
the first part of the disc. VanPortfleet lends his dramatic voice to the
track. The lyrics have a desperate feel, with a Kite as the central point
of the imagery. “Orion” is spacey and Vanflower sings about love again
and uses imagery of the stars to describe her moments. It’s really an intricate,
beautiful track that sets up the track that anchors this fabulous disc.
“Distant Fading Star” is just a beautifully executed ambient track. It
really ends the disc in a perfect way and finishes the feel of the whole
disc in an epic style.
This is a completely coherent
piece of art. It is a very dark album, but it has moments where the light
peers through the cracks and crags of the mournful, sorrowful ambience.
The landscapes are bleak at times, but they are oh so beautiful. Estrella
is a brilliant piece of art.
~ Jason Lamoreaux, Somewhere
Cold
Remastered from the original
1996 recording, Estrella is an 11 track collection of darkwave and
ethereal melancholic bliss. For fans of Cocteau Twins, The Cure, and Aarktica,
Estrella
mixes lush orchestral sounds with more up-tempo rhythmic styles to create
a sound that is part dark ambiance, part gothic. On Estrella, the
spanning atmospherics courtesy of Mike VanPortfleet are complemented with
the beautiful yet haunting vocals of Tara VanFlower. Key tracks include
"El Diablo," "Tainted," and "Orion."
~ William Reed, EchoMag
Softened, deep, dark rich
color...I find some interest in some of the vocal performances and the
beautiful, slow-shifting synths, but in the end it is a bit too static
for my tastes.
~ Static Signals
Lycia’s calling card is
ambient despair. With VanPortfleet’s ability to tap the vein of fear and
hopelessness and Tara Vanflower’s vocal paintings overlaying the soundtracks,
Lycia’s ventures into the netherlands of all that shouldn’t be is like
a passport to human void and waste.
Lycia’s masterpiece of
Cold
revealed a band that breeched the last frontier of originality as it was
deemed that no musical originality existed. Yet VanPortfleet created and
explored a soundscape that we have never heard before. After
Cold,
Lycia worked on and released Estrella, their final new album, while
not the equal of Cold, certainly provided a stunning musical journey
that engulfs you rather than filling ear-space and sending sound messages
to the brain to decode. No, like Cold, Estrella seeps into
your marrow and accesses the nerve bundles like a mainliner looking to
shoot the euphoric fear deep into the cortex of your understanding and
then deliver directly to the root of your desolation. It succeeds.
Previously released by
Projekt Records, VanPortfleet has resurrected the sound quality of this
album and elevated it even further by cleaning the original tapes and thus
re-creating the world of Estrella. Silber Media has reissued the
resulting remaster giving the audience of Lycia yet another chance to re-enter
the strangely unreal world of terror that is uniquely Lycia. The tour for
Estrella
convinced the band that communication with its audience was lost in the
translation of a live setting. Audiences were detached from the completeness
of Lycia’s world because of it and thus the band discontinued live touring.
Regardless, the albums continue to be effective.
“Clouds in the Southern
Sky” begins like a sundown where the light of day is all but depleted.
While none of Estrella works as a conceptual journey as Cold
does, its 11 songs combine to offer a stitched fabric of the edges of sanity
where darkness understands no light, where fear and the unknown walk with
legs and immediately attach to any who enter. Tara’s gorgeous and yet unsettling
vocals are captivating in their detached, yet warning-like delivery such
as is found on “El Diablo.” “Tainted” employs the frightening whispers
of VanPortfleet, found to evoke hopelessness on Cold. Tara’s haunting jump
on “Tongues” is quite unnerving yet so ethereally beautiful that it is
enticing.
“Estrella” benefits greatly
by the remastering, as I heard, for the first time, a mournful keyboard
with the same melody working throughout the song thus adding to the lyrical
eeriness of the song. Tara’s vocal here is wraithlike. There are many more
moments just like these in the remaining six songs not addressed making
Estrella
a commanding reissue. With the remastering, subtle nuances are brought
to the surface making Estrella an even more compelling listen.
The insert is a 4-page
colour set that enhances the photographs making them less hypnotic and
more easily discerned. However, unlike the original release, there are
no lyrics included. Not that they’re necessary; certainly Estrella
exists quite well without the need for them but they are nice to have.
Lycia is a band of immense
sonic power. Their haunting musical soundscapes leaves impressions and
linger far after they have quit whispering into your ears. This reviewer
is excited to hear what remastering does for the ambient classic, Cold.
~ Matt Rowe, Music Tap
Estrella by Lycia
was originally released in 1998. Now it is remastered by Lycia frontman
Mike VanPortfleet and re-released in this definitive version on Silber
Records, with original artwork. Estrella was the duo’s last proper
studio album.
I’m not familiar with much
darkwave bands, but I guess this album perfectly defines everything I thought
darkwave was about. The guitars on Estrella are enforced by many
dreamy effects that make it hard to believe that there’s actually guitars
playing, and the synths are creating never-ending and multi-layered soundscapes
that slightly come in and go away like waves of sound. The drums, guitars
and synths thus create a sound that clearly owes a lot to The Cure. Tara
Vanflower’s vocals are on the foreground, beautifully enforcing the ethereal
feeling this album creates.
This is a very atmospheric
album that needs some time to grow and that’s only to be played when you’re
in the right and dark mood. It makes the mind drift way into the unknown.
But the many repetitive sound effects and the voice that’s practically
doing the same thing throughout the whole album start to get uninspiring
and tedious near the end. When all-round effects creator Mike VanPortfleet
is doing the leading vocals on a track near the end of the album ("The
Kite"), it is welcomed at first, but soon reveals the most boring track
of Estrella.
Imagine yourself standing
outside in a cold winternight, in one of the few woods left in your country.
You’re shivering and you’re all alone, while snow flakes are melting on
your skin. By the light that comes off of the candle you’re holding, you
can see the bats come closer and closer... This album would make the perfect
soundtrack to that storyboard. The fact is, I’m not much of a fan of darkness,
lip gloss and bats. So, honestly, apart from a few highlights, this album
bored the hell out of me.
~ Thomas Byttebier, Semtex
Magazine
Usually reissued albums
that are remastered are simply a companion to the original version.
Yeah, it sounds a little bit better, but not so much to really choose one
version over the other. It's more of a necessity to buy both versions.
This is not the case with the newly repackaged version of Lycia's 1998
release, Estrella. This remaster, which was done by the band
themselves, brings out the ultimate best in this release, so much that
it outshines the original version. In my opinion, the remaster of
this album NULLIFIES the original release. This is the exactly the
version, inside and out, that Lycia intended to release in the first place,
without any outside/record label honcho influence.
First off, the artwork.
On the front cover is still Tara VanFlower, one of the band's vocalists.
The picture, though, is not only different than the original, but the tone
is subdued, darker, and has more of an astral, ethereal filter and mood.
On the original, extremely giant block letters bracketed the cover with
a bright, sol-esque picture of Tara smiling that took up the whole album
cover space -- devoid of any real atmosphere that Lycia's album covers
were known for. The restored artwork, in hindsight, is a perfect
progression from their 1996 masterpiece Cold. Now it has been
realized for all to enjoy and revel in.
But the remastered sound?
Isn't that going to take away from the original mood of the album?
On the original release, the production was surprisingly flat and sterile,
which was a first for the band. The bleak-yet-brilliant Lycia riffs
and melodies were still present, but the way it was presented sounded like
a bland gothic dance album. The second chance prevails, to our delight,
as a wash of reverb has been added to all the instruments, making the production
sound extremely similar to their prior releases, but at the same time,
a progression is still shown. It's like a new life was breathed into
this album completely. Tara's voice is still abundant, but lower
in the mix as it had been on her previous albums with the band, and Mike
vanPortfleet's trademark cool, soothsaying desperation whispers have been
pushed up in the mix, making a perfect, harmonious balance. Finally,
the mix of vapor-like psychedelia and slightly upbeat tempos of their early
material -- which the band originally intended -- isn't just a dream that
could have happened.
I advise any and all fans
of dark, atmospheric music to pick this up now. Don't download the
mp3's. Don't be satisfied with an iPod version. You must have
the artwork present with the uncompressed, full-waveform music on this
one, as it is as important and just to the release. As a rabid, die-hard
Lycia fan, I have always liked Estrella but put it on a back burner to
all the other releases. Now I can actually say I love Estrella
just as much as any Lycia album I've heard, and is just as important in
the world of music altogether. Mandatory.
~ Cody Maillet, twoblock.net
Estrella is the remastered
Silber Records reissue of the last Lycia album from 1998. The band is the
duo of Mike VanPortfleet on guitars, drums, synths and vocals and Tara
Vanflower on vocals. My introduction to the band was the Empty Space
CD (see AI #26), a very nice set of dark, Gothic, atmospheric synth-pop
songs. I enjoyed Empty Space, but Estrella is a thoroughly
seductive space symphonic set of ethereal Goth music. To call this music
hypnotic would be an understatement. I'm not too clued into the Darkwave/Goth
scene, but I love the way Lycia wrap heavy walls of spacey keyboards around
gorgeously melodic flowing instrumentals to create a slow, dark, ambient
intensity. Both VanPortfleet and Vanflower contribute vocals, though they
really serve a function equal to the instrumentation. The music is deeply
spacey, sometimes bringing to mind something Tangerine Dream might sound
like if they were a Goth band. Mood and ambience are key elements, and
Lycia excel at creating an atmosphere that is just as haunting as it is
uplifting. Songs like "El Diablo" and "The Canal", those with the heaviest
symphonic keyboards, were among my favorites, as these also tended to be
the most cosmic tunes and the ones with the most bewitching melodies. "Tainted"
is a similar highlight that includes cool alien electronic embellishments.
And "Silver Sliver" is like a spaced out Gothic kind of torch song. A hauntingly
beautiful album.
~ Jerry Kranitz, Aural
Innovations
If you're at all into darkwave,
you've probably heard of Lycia. Started in 1988 as a solo project by Mike
VanPortfleet, the band reconfigured several times as various people joined
and left. The most recent incarnation (the one appearing on Estrella)
consisted of VanPortfleet and Tara Vanflower. Around 1998, Lycia petered
out as its members pursued other projects and VanPortfleet dealt with health
problems. Estrella was their last proper album, now all shiny from
a remastering by VanPortfleet himself.
Lycia specialized in moody,
sweeping soundscapes, built around soaring layers of synthesizer and heavily
treated guitar and spiced with Vanflower's enigmatic vocals. VanPortfleet
contributed his own voice too, but less frequently. Lycia's music is doleful
enough, but the album title and the names of the first and last songs suggest
a preoccupation with the heavens. "Clouds in the Southern Sky" is a solemn
intro, leading in with ponderous rhythms and a descending melody, and Estrella
winds down with "Distant Fading Star", a sinuous mood piece in which VanPortfleet's
fricative breath noises are the only vocals. In between, highlights include
the baroque "The Kite" (in which VanPortfleet seems to be channeling a
Bauhaus-era Peter Murphy) and the title track, on which Vanflower's depressive
harmonies appear in unusually high relief against shimmery clouds of keyboard.
Occasionally the mix has an overcompressed feel, with the guitars chiming
a bit too piercingly, but more often the instruments undulate hypnotically,
the voices a distant mutter. Estrella's songs are quite repetitive,
but the effect is less tedious than soothing -- a mournful lullaby easing
you into bittersweet dreams.
~ Sarah Zachrich, Spledid
Lycia should be considered
one of the most important acts in goth rock, but has not yet gotten the
publicity it deserves. With the re-release of Estrella, these wrongs
can finally be corrected. Lycia starts out Estrella with “Clouds
in the Southern Sky”, a very ethereal, instrumental track that meshes well
with the backdrop for “El Diablo”. “El Diablo” showcases the haunting vocals
of Tara Vanflower even as the instrumentation on the disc simultaneously
strives for organic and inorganic perfection. Tara plays the role of the
flag-girl during a dragrace (in all those crappy 50s teen movies) as this
dynamic tension fuels greater and more impressive constructs. This album
was originally released in 1997 and the general sound present during tracks
like “Silver Silver” really reflects that. “Silver Silver”, as with a number
of other tracks on Estrella, looks towards the dominant ethereal
paradigm and really make a beautiful go at it. The incorporation of an
atmosphere, bleak and dark as it may be during “The Kite” really shows
the psychological dominance of Lycia throughout; much like tribal rhythms
played on drums, a listener’s psyche is changed throughout. Lycia’s sound
might be a little dated, but what the music on Estrella does has
not changed in the near-decade since the album was first released.
~ Neufutur
Silber continues their love
for all things Mike VanPortfleet with this, their latest Lycia-related
release. Previously, they've released Lycia's final "album", Empty Space.
Last year, they released Mike VanPortfleet post-Lycia debut, Beyond
The Horizon Line (previously featured over on the HiFi), which found
Lycia frontman Mike VanPortfleet moving into much more ambient, atmospheric
territory. And now Silber is re-releasing Estrella, VanPortfleet's
last real album under the Lycia moniker.
Estrella arose out
of a fairly troubled time for the band, as well as a period of transition.
Plagued with band tensions and health problems, VanPortfleet had essentially
shelved Lycia in 1996, and had begun an acoustic side-project titled Estraya
with vocalist Tara Vanflower (the two would get married later that year).
However, by late 1997, work on Estrella began following an extensive
tour.
Estrella continues
in the same vein as Lycia's previous releases, utilizing VanPortfleet's
Cure-inspired guitar work and drum programming - indeed, Lycia is probably
one of the few modern bands to truly capture and continue the sounds captured
on such seminal discs as Faith and Pornography without sounding like mere
copycats - as well as Portfleet's menacing whispers.
However, by the time work
had begun on Estrella, Vanflower had taken over the lion's share
of vocal duties, and her ethereal range actually brightens up the duo's
sound - relatively speaking, of course. The overall mood remains as dark
and ominous as ever, as is the case with "El Diablo", which finds Vanflower's
vocals spinning round lost and dazed amidst coiling, serpentine-like guitar
riffs. And on "Tainted", VanPortfleet's guitar soars against harsh drum
machines and alien synth textures - not surprisingly, the closest comparison
might The Cure's "Fear Of Ghosts", only more barren and forlorn.
On "Tongues", layers of
both Vanflower and VanPortfleet's vocals practically assault the listener
- Vanflower's wordless, "little girl lost" vocals soar high overhead while
VanPortfleet's vocals simmer just below the surface. Together, the two
sound like a case of glossolalia gone horribly wrong - or the Cocteau Twins
slowly going mad inside some abandoned asylum.
But there are moments where
Lycia's sound lightens a bit, and a few rays of starlight actually make
it through the gloom. One such example is the aptly-titled "Silver Sliver",
one of the disc's strongest tracks. It stands in stark contrast to the
rest of the disc's more oppressive sound thanks to Vanflower's softer vocals,
cosmic lyrical imagery, and the sparse piano melodies that trickle down
throughout. Honestly, this might be one of the finest Lycia tracks I've
ever heard.
I was a big Projekt afficianado
back in the day, but strangely enough, the one Projekt band I never fully
got into was Lycia, arguably the label's flagship band after Black Tape
For A Blue Girl. As such, I'm quite enjoying this new attention provided
by the good folks at Silber, simply because I feel like I'm getting to
catch up on a band that I should've checked out years ago. What's more,
listening to Lycia now, years after these releases came out now, I'm impressed
at how well VanPortfleet's music manages to transcend the cliches so often
associated with goth music despite it being so firmly rooted within those
genres.
~ Jason Morehead, Opus
Re-release of this long
deleted Lycia album ( originally from 1996 ) with new artwork and in re-mastered
quality. One of the true ethereal darkwave classics ! Estrella was
US act Lycia's last proper studio album with songs originally written in
1996 and fleshed out over a fifty show tour. Eight years later, lycia mainman
Mike VanPortfleet has revisited these songs to remaster them to make a
definitive version of the release uncompromised by the hands of others.
The artwork has been restored to the original version, unaltered from the
artistic vision meant to match the music. The goal of Estrella was
to mix the lush orchestral sound VanPortfleet had developed over the previous
eight years that had culminated in Cold with the more up-tempo rhythmic
style of Wake. Estrella also marks Tara VanFlower's move
to primary vocalist and lyricist, the results delivering a transcendental,
genre-defying, darkwave/ethereal classic.
~ Chain D.L.K.
Lycia should be considered
one of the most important acts in goth rock, but has not yet gotten the
publicity it deserves. With the re-release of Estrella, these wrongs
can finally be corrected. Lycia starts out Estrella with “Clouds in the
Southern Sky,” a very ethereal, instrumental track that meshes well with
the backdrop for “El Diablo.” “El Diablo” showcases the haunting vocals
of Tara Vanflower even as the instrumentation on the disc simultaneously
strives for organic and inorganic perfection. Tara plays the role of the
flag-girl during a dragrace (in all those crappy 50s teen movies) as this
dynamic tension fuels greater and more impressive constructs. This album
was originally released in 1997 and the general sound present during tracks
like “Silver Silver” really reflects that. “Silver Silver,” as with a number
of other tracks on Estrella, looks towards the dominant ethereal
paradigm and really make a beautiful go at it. The incorporation of an
atmosphere, bleak and dark as it may be during “The Kite” really shows
the psychological dominance of Lycia throughout; much like tribal rhythms
played on drums, a listener’s psyche is changed throughout. Lycia’s sound
might be a little dated, but what the music on Estrella does has
not changed in the near-decade since the album was first released.
~ James McQuiston, Altar
Magazine
Inutile continuare se gli
stimoli si assopiscono, meglio morire e dedicarsi ad una “sana” attivitŕ
di ristampe nel tentativo (mai vano) di riportare in auge dischi immortali
e di ostica reperibilitŕ. ‘Estrella’ non č il capolavoro
dei Lycia, schiacciato dalla responsabilitŕ di eguagliare capolavori
come ‘Wake’ e ‘Cold’ tant’č che lo stesso Mike VanPortfleet dichiarň
di essersi ispirato, durante la fase di stesura di ‘Estrella’, proprio
a quei due capolavori del passato. Ne nacque un album, a cui oggi č
stata fornita una nuova copertina e masterizzazione, meno angosciante e
depresso rispetto ai consueti canoni stilistici dei Lycia senza perň
privare la loro darkwave di quelle riconoscibilissime sfumature ipnotiche
rintracciabili in ‘Tainted’ ed ‘Orion’.
~ Kronik
Silber réédité
cet album de Lycia datant de 1996. Pure darkwave éthérée
avec un chant féminin, réminiscent des débuts des
Cocteau Twins ou de Dead Can Dance, planant, sombre, noir, glacé
et définitivement new wave.
~ Derives
Re-edición de este
album de culto del genero darkwave/gothic y que de paso se mete en buena
medida con el ambient/ethereal/electronica. Wow. Entonces, a que suena?
Sombrio, obscuro y melancólico, con elegantes arreglos de sintetizador,
guitarras líquidas y beats electrónicos persistentes. No
soy muy docto en el género, pero puedo entender claramente porque
este disco tiene el status que se le ha dado entre los seguidores de la
música obscura. Elementos de Brian Eno, This mortal coil y algo
de los Cocteau Twins mas sedados se conjungan en composiciones sencillas,
casi minimalistas con vocales que parecen susurrarte aventuras del pasado.
Me atrevo a decir que si
no conoces nada del género pero tienes esa firme intención
de contar con algo en tu colección, este es el disco indicado. No
busques más.
~ Jesus Diaz, Eufonia
Mike VanPortfleet sta rimettendo
mano ai suoni una profonditŕ che le edizioni originali su Projekt
non avevano. Non per demerito dell'etichetta di Sam Rosenthal ma
perché al tempo VanPortfleet registrava spesso solo con mezzi casalinghi
poco professionali. Ora che le sue abilitŕ da ingegenere del
suono di tutto rispetto, č un piacere riascoltare le profonditŕ
delle sue orchestrazioni curate nel minimo dettaglio. Anche in un
album come Estrella, al tempo della sua uscita criticato
perchč piů vicino ad una versione gotica dei Cocteau Twins
(grazie anche all'apporto vacoale di Tara VanFlower) che alle atmosfere
intrise di pessimismo cosmico che avevano popolato i suoi album precedenti
(su tutti il capolavoro A Day in the Stark Corner).
Ma č proprio all'aspetto ipnotico delle atmosfere sognanti che giova
il nuovo trattamento: un album da rivalutare.
~ Roberto Mandolini, Rockerilla
Na rozdíl od pozitivisty
Jamie Barnese je Mark VanPortfleet muž stín? a tmy. Pokud bychom
m?li naprosto neznalého poslucha?e pou?it, jak zní darkwave
rock, Lycia by m?la být vždy hned po ruce. Automatický bubeník,
hory syntezátor?, elektrická kytara, vemlouvaný, trochu
zimom?ivý Mark?v vokál a oproti tomu výrazný,
barevný, na citové odstíny bohatý vokál
Tary VanFlower - to jsou hlavní a tak?ka jediné zbran? hudebního
arzenálu této arizonské kapely. Vezm?te esenci Sisters
Of Mercy (p?edevším z jediného alba Gift bo?áku Sisterhood),
p?elejte jí louhem ranných, ješt? extrémn? zasn?ných
Lush (nebo Cocteau Twins okolo alba Heaven Or Las Vegas) a p?idejte ?irost
minimalistických melodických postup? Ulricha Schnausse. Pokud
vše d?kladn? promícháte, máte v kostce výsledný
neveselý, ale z?eteln? pozitivní nad?jí prosv?tlený
sound Lycie rok výroby 1998, kdy poprvé album Estrella vyšlo.
Remastering alba si vzal na starost sám Mark a krom vypulírovaného
zvuku album opat?il i p?vodním návrhem obalu. V??ím,
že po vleklých zdravotních problémech, které
donutily Marka p?erušit ?innost až do p?edlo?ského roku, je znovuvydání
tohoto posledního ?adového alba (Empty Space bylo posléze
zve?ejn?no v nedokon?eném polotovaru a Tripping Back Into The Broken
Days bylo zpo?átku nahráváno a mixováno jako
druhá deska bo?ního projektu Estreya) p?edzv?stí nových,
temn? zá?ících darkwave slastí.
~ Pavel Zelinka, FreeMusic.cz