Customer Reviews

Day in Stark Corner

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the push of the play button, you get this very distant, dark pounding...

The rhythm of "And Through The Smoke and Nails" hits you. The synth bounces in and out rapidly of the song, and a piano strikes a few now and then. And then you hear Mike...and it makes you want to cry or hurt yourself. His voice is a godsong whisper, echoing through the halls of his musical creation.

"Pygmallion" jumps in with a dense synth overlay and a few high strings. This song has a great life to it, mixing hope and desolation together. The end has some excellent solid high notes.

"The Body Electric" is a harsh, hollowed out body of black light, Mike's vocals cut in through a wall of bleak noise.

"Wide Open Spaces"...beyond all words, a true masterpiece...

"The Morning Breaks So Cold And Gray" emanates a choral-like background with vocals that could make anyone shudder. A bit more airy, and still marvelous.

"The Remants and the Ruins" is a distant mix of guitar and low-end vocals with a reverberated synthesizer giving the song a distinctly wide sound.

"Goddess Of The Green Fields" is an oddball here, a bit more up-tempo with some nice acoustic guitar work. A heavily reverbed drum kit gives the rest of the song some more feeling to it.

"Everything is Cold" is a gothic masterpiece, an amazingly powerful piece of music. A beautiful guitar melody and a trademark dark, distant synth drone.

"Sorrow Is Her Name" is Mike's crowning poetic acheivement. A phased synth pattern with great highs and lows, a great drum beat, and a shattering lyrical piece.

"Daphne" is ridden with cymbal crashes and rising and falling synths, and a sorrowful longing for another. Mike is honest to the very point here.

Gothic fan, Darkwave fan, fan of anything dark, this is essential. Don't ask questions, don't read this silly review, buy a NEW copy of this CD right NOW!

In short; this is a good album, a great album, and if you like somber, melodic,experimental things, you'll like this.To go and pigeonhole this album - moreover,this band- as "Goth" is really an insult.This goes way beyond the realm of cheezy,melodramatic cliched tripe about vampires and necrophiles.It's like comparing Lisa Gerard to Britney Spears.

Lycia definately isn't for someone looking for happy, upbeat salsa music, but it's not for the "Oh dear,I've stapled my withered hand to my pasty white forehead" crowd either.

_A Day In The Stark Corner_ kind of carries on naturally where _Ionia_, Lycia's "first" album, left off, musically and thematically. More of the same can be found on solitude in the desert, elegies on the passing of time, and subtle appreciations of the natural world; but much of it seems more personal, more direct, more focused on the here and now. Its imagery has a unifying and propelling effect on the songs; standing alone under a vast, clear sky while an encompassing, almost featureless horizon stretches out forever... Morosely watching the sun rise under a shower of rain, wishing the new day would really be new... Sitting alone in a dark room fighting a heated battle against oneself to remain balanced and sane... Sifting through memories and finding the best, purest ones seem the farthest away... Lycia's music has an incomparable quality of combining elements of the harsh and the soothing from life into a unified whole which is unutterably evocative, and has a tendency to really sink deep into your bones if you really let it.

The last three songs from this album work beautifully as a case in point for what Lycia is like at its peak: "Everything Is Cold" is weary and plaintive and might be described as despairing, except it actually sounds brimming with hope at the same time. Then one is cast headlong into "Sorrow Is Her Name," a harrowing chronicle of a private battle with depression. Between the harsh and soothing which a Lycia song embodies, this one tends more toward the former in an obvious sense, but still somehow contains an ample injection of the latter; kind of similar to how "Everything Is Cold" works. And then to cap it all off, as if in a conscious statement of self-affirmation, is my favorite Lycia song of all, "Daphne", a song whose breathtaking ethereal splendor typifies why I can't get enough of Lycia. "Daphne," in contrast with what precedes it, is a Lycia song definitely more of the soothing type. So it could be said that the music is all about balance; each song has its own unique balance of elements, and then when one steps back to a whole group of songs, a whole other level of balance emerges. When the world is harsh, and people won't understand, thank God for Lycia.

A Day in a Stark Corner is one of the most beautifully touching and thought provoking albums I have heard. It is feeled with raw emotion and darkness. This is one of the best albums I have bought. I highly recommend especially if you are into goth.

Lycia is one of the very first bands to appear on the Projekt label (back when its catalog was just a folded flyer) that ended up becoming one of the definitive standards in the darkwave genre.

While there have been other members throughout the band's history, this particular release was a solo project of Mike Van Portfleet. Although there is no evidence that this is a concept album, the sound and lyrics have a definite theme of isolation. The songs work well together, showcasing Mike's talent for creating shimmering walls of sound that acts as a blanket of melancholic ambience. This is achieved by lingering notes from distorted guitars, piano and keyboard strings, as well as the ocassional whispered vocals.

Although Lycia has other release that are more polished, this is my personal favorite because of the consistant enveloping ambience. It also contais my favorite Lycia songs "And through the smoke and nails" and "Daphne".

...a brilliant piece of music, delivered at a time when much in music was sour... This album changed my world exactly when change was needed. It was my first purchase from the now well known projekt label, when projekt still had great talent within its wings. The music on this album is strangely uplifting even though a single listen may reveil otherwise...

gothic for the gothic. this is an incredibly dark ethereal record, and every track makes you think its the end of the world. most of the songs seem to be about relationships and their demise. dont listen to this when you need to pep yourself up, its a definite downer, but a beautiful and effective one. the vocals are so heavily reverbed that they sound whispered and the melodies, mostly in minor chords seem to adhere to a slow to midpaced 3/4 or 6/8 time signature. lycia knows how to make gloomy music, and touches you deeply with it.

I mostly listen to this at night when I'm laying in bed trying to sleep. This is the greatest cd and the best band ever. "The morning breaks so cold and gray and I'm still here alone". Must buy this. It will take your soul and bring it to new levels. I get chills of sadness every time I hear the music. Experience this for yourself no matter what you listen to now. This is a must buy. Also, check out Ionia, Wake, The Burning Circle, Cold and Estrella.

a day in the stark conner is a beautiful CD that touches the sad emptyness of your soul. highly recommended

tripping, ionia and cold are much better albums in my opinion.