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Lux Interna

Lux Interna * God Is Not Dead For The Birds (cd 2007 eis & licht)

Some seven years ago, before Myspace or even cd-demos, I read about this new American band (on a website). The demo contains both neofolk and more electronic experiments and was alright (my review of 24/8/00 is still up here somewhere). The band was signed by Eis & Licht, usually not the most innovating neofolk label and my interest in the genre went down, so I didn’t really follow Lux Interna anymore. Last Wave Gotik Treffen I saw their nice show in the Anker, a more mature and poppy approach with nice songs containing cello and violin too, so I looked their cds on the internet and downloaded them. “Absence And Plenum” (2002) is a rather typical neofolk album and not very good, “Ignis Mutat Res” (2004) also starts in this vein, but becomes much better in the second half, so I guessed I might just order the new album and see if the progress continued. The new album seems to leave behind the neofolk origins a bit and didn’t follow the more poppy sound that most neofolk bands have turned to, but more focus is put on the cello and violin and the sound reminds me often of the German band Chamber (or l’Orchestre De Chambre Noire, see reviews), especially also because of the vocals. Whereas Chamber gives even more room to the classical influences, so much that I have described their music as “chamber music”, Lux Interna keeps holding the acoustic guitar and vocals (male and female) on the forefront, but the musical structure and atmosphere can no longer be really described as “neofolk”. Another difference between the two bands is that Lux Interna has left the music modest and melancholic, while Chamber also had some light-footed songs. “God Is Not Dead For The Birds” has become a nice album, not really groundbreaking, but also not slavely following the path that the scene sets out. Furthermore it is well-contructed and well-recorded so all in all a nice listening experience.
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Links: Lux Interna, Eis & Licht Tonträger

Lux Interna * Thruth And Beauty And All Their Severity (demo 2000)

In a gigantic envelope I received the demo tape of this American band. The content was (visually) not as impressive though. The tape is a copied TDK-tape and the cover is a small print-out with only the bandname and a photo. Further enclosed were some A4 prints with the lyrics.
The tape opens with a minimal neo-folk song. Only an acoustic guitar and gothlike vocals (an 80’ies ‘grave’ voice). Also the second song starts in that manner, but at the end there is a heavy vocal-distortion. The third track is electronic, a not too good experimental, slightly industrial thing and then we switch to face B. More minimal industrial, but this time with some accompany of synth on the background and strange effects on the guitar and the vocals at times. The second track of side B starts nicely, but ends in a chaotic beat/drum thing.
Anyway, the folksongs are actually quite good. Somehow the minimality stressed the nice melodies and gives the music a certain charm.
The sound-quality isn’t very good though and the package might have been better as well. On the other side: it is a demo!
The material that I got gives me nothing to go on, so I’ll just give you the address that I found on Heimdallr, where I read about this demo myself.
Joshua Ian Levi and Kathryn Cielewich * Lux Interna * 273 Richmond Ave #12 * Buffalo NY 14222 * USA