Lycia Casa Luna

The current lineup of the band is John Fair, David Galas, Tara Vanflower and Mike VanPortfleet, who has been the only constant member since the band\x27s formation. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the groundbreaking groups in the darkwave and ethereal styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle And Then Dust remains a high point of American dark rock according to AllMusic, and 1996\x27s Cold has been cited as one of the genre\x27s best by Post\-Punk.com and Alternative Press. Lycia\x27s sound is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of heavily effected guitars, dark atmospheric keyboards, heavy reverb drenched drum machines, VanPortfleet\x27s somber raspy vocals and Vanflower\x27s vivid melodic voice. Avantgarde Music had the pleasure to bring the 1991 debut full\-length Ionia to a vinyl edition for the first time in early 2021, and this brought along the chance to cooperate on new music. This turned out to be a rich studio EP, Casa Luna. We reached out to Mike VanPortfleet, who describes Casa Luna as a followup to 2018\x27s In Flickers, with a more varied approach, stylistically and thematically. In Flickers and Casa Luna are Lycia\x27s purest releases. Originally planned as a split 7 with the song A Quiet Way to Go, as more songs were written they evolved to an EP. Casa Luna features re\-recordings of a couple of John Fair and Mike VanPortfleet\-written early synth\-based songs (Except and Galatea) from 1989, previously only heard in rough demo form. The EP also revisits an interest in Spanish\/Flamenco styles previously explored by Mike VanPortfleet and John Fair in 1983. Tara Vanflower\x27s desire to do a heavier piece, along with David Galas\x27 background in heavier music led to the song Do You Bleed?, while Mike VanPortfleet\x27s interest in older Art Rock and Electronic Music led to the sequenced break to Salt \x26 Blood.