"And Through The Smoke And Nails" kicks off the album as it means to go on - plenty of ethereal reverberation slipping in & out between simplistic compositional structures while the vocalist whispers his half-hiddenwords. It has a certain emotional hook despite it's four-square style, and sets the atmosphere for things to come. "Pygmalion" reminds me a lot of VANGELIS's theme from "The Bounty", a simple, almost ambient tune with a distinct flattened piano motif & a beautiful sustaining guitar sound, it perfectly portrays lazy daydream fantasies from childhood days, painting a picture of misty mystery. It grows into a huge diaphanous thing, then fades away again to almost nothingness, always full of tune. "The Body Electric" uses church bell sounds as it swells into life, a ritualistic sound through which slow-bursts the tune, like breath on a dandilion clock on a sharp frosty morning, making a roiling airborn image, not easy to describe yet fleetingly beauteous. "Wide Open Spaces" is a slow dance, of dust motes in sluggish stale space, both aesthetically pleasing & lazily lacklustre, it drifts in soporific dream state, floating without touching matter, with only the slow deep drums remaining attached to the earth itself. When the guitar joins in, it has the ethereal laziness on some of the COCTEAU TWINS' material around "Tiny Dynamine". "The Morning Breaks So Cold And Gray" indeed captures the coldness of a Winter's morning, seen from a window, magnificently white with frozen dew, where even hidden spider's webs lay exposed as exquisitely complex necklaces of uncut diamonds. Yet it has a certain comforting, enveloping warmth to it, a feeling of temporary security. LYCIA need to be heard loud to appreciate the full effect of their sound, and this is a perfect example of that, with much of the sound hidden within, awaiting discovery. "The Remnants And The Ruins" again reminds me of the COCTEAU TWINS circa the aforementioned ep - coldly rippling guitar cuts the hushed air like cheesewire while the miniature drums & massive amorphous washes of sound (keyboard? a second guitar?) roll across the composition, gossamer tissues of material moved by the stale breeze. "Goddess Of The Green Fields" is a simple sad Folk song which still keeps the familiar LYCIA sound, this time built mostly on acoustic (sounding) guitar. "Everything Is Cold" remains in the doldrums of misty tears & cold emotional loss, gently pulling the shades of fantasy apart, peeling them away to reveal what hides (or what we have hidden) beneath. "Sorrow Is Her Name" has perhaps the most memorable vocal refrain in this album & if they were to release a single from this material (not really advisable, as it stands well as a whole), then this would be the obvious choice, a ghost song, haunting, somehow unreal despite the evidence your ears tell you - beautifully sad & timelessly Gothic, this might make a good theme for an artistic Vampire film (say a mellowed-out ANNE RICE tale). The heartache and loss of this tale seem to echo off down subterranean catacombs, brushing it's delicate fingers through the accumulated dust of passing years. "Daphne" brings the album to it's conclusion, again having a silvery shaft of guitar light adding colour & movement to the dove-grey ethereal backing while the vocalist whispers for fear of waking the dead, or of desecrating this almost holy place. LYCIA is the work of MIKE VAN PORTFLEET who wrote & performed the entire album. If this is anything to go by, I'd recommend the first album "Ionia", which should still be easily available to any interested party. Often simple, this music is nevertheless an experience to savour, a space to lose yourself in, a fantasy land to explore, always for shrouded, but nevertheless an interesting place to spend your time. Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.