His Name Is Alive - Livonia (2024 remaster)

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.

Tracklisting:

1. As We Could Ever

2. E-Nicolle (Introduction)

3. If July

4. Some and I

5. Fossil (Verse)

6. E-Nicolle

7. Caroline’s Supposed Demon

8. Fossil

9. Reincarnation

10. You And I Have Seizures

11. How Ghosts Affect Relationships

12. Darkest Dreams