Lycia
Quiet Moments
With 2013s breathtaking and bewitching Quiet Moments, Lycia truly kicked off their second era. Written, performed, and recorded by Mike VanPortfleet with additional vocals from Tara Van- flower, these 11 tracks retain the bands familiar hypnotic post-punk/dark rock muse while simultaneously sounding fresh and original. "Its not often a band comes back from a long hiatus with anything approaching its best work," writes Craig Hayes in PopMatters, "but with Quiet Moments Lycia has returned with an album as blissful and fascinating as Cold or The Burning Circle and then Dust. Quiet Moments presents a beautiful portrait of Lycia in 2013, reaching in and grasping at the heart with bitter- sweet, pensive, and luxurious sounds." With emotionally raw songs and plenty of mournfulness, Quiet Moments is a deeply personal and honest album - delving into isolation, existence, love and loss. The album explores eternal themes through glimpses into Mikes private life and innermost thoughts. In a sense these are plaintive snapshots of memories - VanPortfleets personal recollections of an icy, distant past. Lycia creates meaningful yearning imagery, and deep, immersive evocativeness. Creating that moody atmosphere is exactly what Lycia does best - turning the mournful into the majestic to make meditative suites. With echoing vocals rising through wintry drones, and light reflecting off glazed guitars and billowing, shimmering electronics and effects, Quiet Moments is 64 minutes of expressive, eloquent, and chilling music.