Lycia

Lycia: Estrella

Review by Rotwang

Meaning "star" in Spanish, "Estrella" is the latest release from Lycia. In keeping with Lycia's previous releases being inspired by the environment, "Estrella" is inspired by the moods and feelings of the night sky. As a result, there is a very spacey feel to it, although not a cliched spacey with therimins and UFO sounds. Another aspect about "Estrella" is the fact that Tara Van Portfleet (formerly Tara Van Flower) takes up almost almost all of the vocals. In fact, Lycia frontman Mike Van Portfleet sings on only two songs, in favor of concentrating more on instrumental aspects. Sound-wise, "Estrella" is very soft and mellow, even more so than "Cold." Tara's voice has a very childlike quality that further adds to the soft guitars and synths. The sound is quite a departure from the usual harsher sound of Lycia. I am quite impressed by the fact that the sound of the album actually does inspire spacey pictures of shooting stars and orbiting satellites, despite not sounding like anything you would think would go well with those images. That is what I have always liked about Lycia: clever use of new and interesting sounds and styles to totally reinvent the way you thought certain sounds go with certain images. And "Estrella" certainly succeeds at that.

Relevant Links:

The Lycium (Official Website)

Lycia Site at Projekt

Projekt Records

Images and background from Projekt's Lycia Homepage.