Lycia (band)
| Lycia | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Tempe, Arizona, United States |
| Genres | Dark wave, ethereal wave |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Lycium Music, Silber Records, Projekt Records |
| Website | lyciummusic.com |
| Members |
Mike VanPortfleet David Galas Tara Vanflower |
| Past members | John Fair Will Welch |
Lycia is a dark wave/gothic rock band that was formed in 1988, in Tempe, Arizona, United States. The main personnel of the band are Mike VanPortfleet, Tara Vanflower and David Galas. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the ground breaking groups in darkwave and ethereal wave styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle and Then Dust received some attention for the power pop hit song "Pray," and the album "remains a high point of American dark rock," according to Allmusic. Lycia's music is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of echoed guitars, dark and ethereal keyboards, doomy drum machine beats, VanPortfleet's melancholic, whispered vocals and Vanflower's vivid voice. Trent Reznor and Peter Steele are some of their more well-known fans.
After Mike VanPortfleet started Lycia in 1988 as a solo project, in the summer of that year he met Will Welch who joined for the project. In November, Welch was replaced by John Fair. In March 1989, Lycia's first recording, Wake, a 6-song demo tape, is released on Orphanage Records. The sound is characterized at the time by dominating rock guitars and rhythm patterns of drum computer.Wake was unique in that it was mastered directly onto an audio cassette tape as opposed to the more professional multitrack recording that Lycia would henceforth use.
John Fair left Lycia in 1990, and Will Welch returned. The sound of Lycia increasingly evolved into a heavy-noise or harsh industrial direction. At the end of that year, Lycia began work on the first full-length album entitled "Byzantine", but due to technical problems it never appeared. Mike VanPortfleet decided to gather the individual fragments of the album for a second start-up process. The final outcome was in September 1991 under the title Ionia on the label Projekt Records, and is characterized by ambient textures and very flat and atmospheric sounds.
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