Livonia

His Name is Alive, the long-standing ethereal darkwave project of Michigan musician Warren Defever, announces the repressing of the band’s first three records on 4AD – Livonia, Home Is In Your Head, and Mouth By Mouth – available from 8th May. Recently reissued in 2024 as part of a quickly sold-out coloured vinyl boxset entitled How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993, with audio sourced from the original analogue tapes and remastered by Defever himself, the albums are now each available on Standard Black LP and CD.His Name is Alive has a long history with 4AD, signed to the label in 1989, after label founder Ivo Watts-Russell fell in love with their dark and fragmented sonic inclinations via cassette demos sent in the post. While His Name Is Alive’s sound was in line with the gothic echoes of labelmates Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, they also had a different, nonpareil quality, something existing on the boundary of this earth and another realm further underground.His Name Is Alive’s 1990 4AD label debut Livonia cemented the band’s presence among 4AD’s well-established ethereal lineage, reinventing and refracting the label’s sound through a prism. A tender and slightly deranged dream-pop record, it packages nearly ten years of Defever’s home recordings – brought to haunting chorus via the spectral, feminine vocals of Karin Oliver. Produced and mixed by Ivo Watts-Russell and This This Mortal Coil collaborator John Fryer, the record is a powerful opening statement, inviting intrigue via noisy refrains and textural guitar. It examines the dual themes of love and loss, woozily delivered as if dreamlike.