Idylls (1992), the debut album by Love Spirals Downwards, remains one of the definitive works of ethereal wave, blending lush instrumentation, poetic abstraction, and influences spanning medieval poetry, Indian classical music, and 60s psychedelic folk rock. Released on Projekt Records in the U.S. and Hyperium Records in Germany, the album introduced the duo of Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry, whose creative synergy produced music described by Industrial Nation as “like a cloud-ride to a heaven via angelic voices and delicate music.”
The album’s signature sound—a combination of Lum’s intricate acoustic and electric guitar work and Perry’s mesmerizing, glossolalia-style vocals—evokes a timeless and otherworldly atmosphere. Comparisons to Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance are inevitable, but Idylls carved its own unique space within the ethereal music scene, described by Projekt Records as “the unconscious mind of ethereal music.” Music From The Empty Quarter praised its dreamlike quality, calling it “thirteen angelic tracks tripping through peaceful illusions and fantasies, only briefly accessible in dream-soaked memories.”
“Forgo,” the duo’s first collaboration, exemplifies their fusion of tribal percussion, Indian classical influences, and abstract vocal improvisation, setting the stage for the sonic explorations of Idylls.
An Eclectic Foundation: Inspirations and Influences
Love Spirals Downwards emerged during a pivotal moment for ethereal and dream-pop music, when acts like Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, and Black Tape for a Blue Girl were defining the genre with their explorations of sound, texture, and emotion. Lum’s approach to composition was deeply informed by this movement but also drew on a wide range of influences. As he explained in a 1993 interview:
“I believe that all the different types of music that I have listened to throughout the years—such as ethereal, ambient, East Indian classical, psychedelic ’60s, and tribal percussive—have been blended into our eclectic sound.”
Lum’s fascination with Indian classical music, in particular, played a key role in shaping Idylls. After attending sitar and tabla performances at Occidental College, he reflected:
“The music took everyone on the same ‘trip.’ It was impossible to be there experiencing the performance and not have your consciousness taken on a journey by the power of the music.”
This meditative, transportive quality became a hallmark of Idylls. Lum’s intricate guitar textures, inspired by the Cocteau Twins’ shimmering soundscapes and the psychedelia of 60s bands like Jefferson Airplane and Popol Vuh, serve as the foundation for the album’s otherworldly atmosphere. Altered Mind lauded this combination of artistry, stating:
“The perfect pairing of Suzanne Perry’s ethereal siren vocal and Ryan Lum’s intricately crafted instrumentation. The sound is soothing, uplifting, and energizing all at once, and is marked by both delicacy and force.”
Meanwhile, Perry’s vocal style was shaped by her imaginative use of language, combining Middle English poetry, snippets of foreign languages, invented sounds, and obscured modern English lyrics. In a 1993 interview, Perry described her experimental approach:
“Some of [the lyrics] are in English, and they make some sense, and some are in English and they make no sense. And then there’s some French, and some Indian too—make-believe Indian.”
This mixture of intelligible and nonsensical language transforms Perry’s voice into a purely emotive instrument, drawing comparisons to Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. Perry’s ability to evoke emotion through vocal abstraction remains one of the album’s most captivating elements. Ray Gun Magazine encapsulated the album’s appeal in its 1993 review:
“Idylls swims on waves of guitar and airy, otherworldly vocals.”
“Forgo”: The Genesis of an Ethereal Sound
“Forgo,” the first song ever created by Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry, stands as the genesis of Love Spirals Downwards’ signature ethereal sound. Written during an impromptu session, the track set the tone for the band’s improvisational and emotive approach to songwriting. Perry recalled the song’s origins in a 1995 interview with Ink Spots Magazine:
“The first song we ever made was ‘Forgo.’ I had never written a song before. I just got in there and started humming in the microphone, and that’s how it happened. We listened to it and thought, ‘Hey, that’s not too bad!’”
Lum added in Tear Down the Sky (1993):
“I guess you just started singing one night. We were jamming something that became the song ‘Forgo,’ and it sounded cool. So we carried it out and found out that we worked together nicely.”
The track’s percussive, tribal rhythm—featuring a vintage drum machine, rhythmic bass lines, droning synths, and chiming guitar patterns—established the core elements of the duo’s sonic identity. Perry’s layered glossolalia-style vocals, evoking the melodic improvisation of Indian classical singers, brought an emotional immediacy that mirrored the themes of motion and longing found throughout Idylls.
“Forgo” became a cornerstone of the band’s early success, appearing on the influential compilation From Across This Gray Land No. 3 (1992). This exposure played a key role in securing their signing with Projekt Records, setting the stage for their debut album. Its rhythmic experimentation, combined with Perry’s abstract vocal approach, foreshadowed Idylls’ blending of medieval poetry, natural imagery, and introspective soundscapes.
Poetic Resonances and Abstract Soundscapes
The opening track, “Illusory Me,” immediately immerses the listener in the album’s mystical and reflective tone with lyrics that combine vivid natural imagery with surreal abstraction. The enigmatic opening line, “Fraoch shalais,” interpreted as salt heather, evokes resilience and beauty amidst adversity. Similarly, the phrase “Carnelian autumn” creates a striking visual of fiery red-orange hues, symbolizing both vitality and impermanence. Lum’s cryptic guitar melodies and Perry’s ethereal vocal layering create a soundscape that feels both timeless and deeply personal.
In “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” Perry transforms invented sounds and rhythmic patterns into lyrical elements, singing lines like “Ki ya yo, lay yay yo” and “Leshre yay she yay.” These abstract, mantra-like lyrics allow the voice to transcend language, functioning as an instrument of pure emotion.
Mute Magazine captured the dreamlike allure of the album’s sound, writing in 1992:
“It all flows together like a dream of some long, sun-drenched afternoon with a cool breeze now and then wafting through. It makes one think of gathering flowers or slipping into the shadows.”
Medieval and Poetic Resonances
The medieval influence on Idylls comes alive in three central tracks—“And the Wood Comes Into Leaf,” “This Endris Night,” and “Dead Language”—each offering a distinct interpretation of poetic traditions, spiritual longing, and nature’s cycles. Together, these songs reflect the album’s ability to weave timeless themes with modern sonic textures.
“And the Wood Comes Into Leaf” stands as one of the album’s most profound meditations on nature, time, and mortality. Drawing inspiration from Middle English poetry, the song reflects the ubi sunt tradition of mourning those who have passed, seen in the repeated refrain: “Were beeth they biforen us weren?” (“Where are they who came before us?”). This question grounds the song in a universal reflection on impermanence and loss. Paired with pastoral imagery—“Goeth sun under, groweth sed bloweth” (“The sun sets, the seed grows, the wind blows”)—the lyrics juxtapose life’s transience with nature’s perpetual renewal.
The line “The wood comes into leaf” acts as both a symbol of seasonal rebirth and a bittersweet reminder of absence, echoing medieval poetic meditations where nature mirrors the cycles of human life. Perry’s haunting vocal delivery alternates between clarity and abstraction, transforming lines like “Ychabbe y-yerned yore” (“I have yearned for so long”) into a mantra-like expression of longing. Lum’s lush production reinforces these themes, blending layered harmonies and intricate guitar patterns with reverb and delay, creating a soundscape that feels both ancient and otherworldly.
“This Endris Night” reinterprets an anonymous medieval carol, infusing its devotional themes with a mystical, dreamlike quality. The lyrics—“Beheld a sight that’s in the sky / For angels bright done to me light”—mirror the carol’s original narrative of divine revelation, while Perry’s ethereal delivery and the hypnotic refrain of “Fa la la la, la la la” elevate the song into a spiritual invocation. The phrase “I pray Thee grant my wish, this endris night I may not sleep” reflects a yearning for divine connection and a glimpse of transcendent beauty. Lum’s arrangement blends minimal instrumentation with Perry’s layered vocal textures, balancing reverence and intimacy in a way that bridges the sacred and the human.
“Dead Language” introduces a more experimental dimension, using invented phonetics and mythological references to evoke an atmosphere of mysticism and abstraction. Glossolalic phrases like “Kala yey rana” (“Time is the battlefield”) and “Va vu oo na” (“O divine essence!”) highlight themes of spiritual transcendence and the cyclical nature of time, drawing parallels with the symbolic imagery of “And the Wood Comes Into Leaf.” The inclusion of Hindu deities such as Vishnu and Varuna adds a transcultural layer, situating the song within a universal spiritual framework. Perry’s glossolalia transforms her voice into an emotive instrument, amplifying the song’s meditative and sacred qualities.
Connection to Idylls and Broader Themes
Together, these three tracks exemplify the interplay between medieval traditions, spiritual longing, and abstract vocal experimentation that defines Idylls.
- Nature as Metaphor: “And the Wood Comes Into Leaf” reflects the cyclical rhythms of nature, symbolizing renewal and transience, while “This Endris Night” transforms celestial imagery into a devotional meditation.
- Spiritual Longing: All three tracks channel a yearning for divine connection and transcendence, whether through the liturgical echoes of “This Endris Night” or the abstract invocations of “Dead Language.”
- Timeless Universality: While inspired by medieval motifs, these songs feel strikingly modern. The metaphor of time’s cycles and spiritual yearning resonates across centuries, bridging the gap between historical and contemporary spirituality.
Lum’s intricate production—melding acoustic and electronic textures—ensures that these timeless themes are matched by an equally timeless sound, creating an immersive journey into the sacred, the natural, and the transcendent.
Nature and the Cosmos
Themes of nature and cosmic imagery are central to Idylls, as evidenced in songs like “Drops, Rain, and Sea” and “Stir About the Stars.” Perry’s vocal delivery on “Drops, Rain, and Sea” flows in rhythm with life’s cyclical patterns, while Lum’s instrumentation draws from the dreamy textures of Cocteau Twins’ Victorialand. Meanwhile, “Stir About the Stars” shifts focus to the vastness of the cosmos, situating human imagination within an infinite universe. Lum described its lyrics in 1996 as “nonsense poetry,” stating:
“It’s not supposed to mean anything… but I liked how I could interpret it in many different ways, all of which were interesting.”
The dreamlike imagery—“Make castles when you want to / And fill them with sights”—reflects the album’s overarching themes of creation, wonder, and transcendence.
Instrumental Meditations
The album’s two instrumental tracks, “Eudaimonia” (who’s title refers to a state of human flourishing and contentment) and “Waiting for Sunrise,” showcase Lum’s ability to create deeply evocative soundscapes through subtle yet intricate guitar work. Stripping away the vocal layers that define much of the album, these tracks emphasize Lum’s mastery of acoustic and electric arrangements, offering moments of meditative introspection within Idylls’ broader ethereal framework. In a 2009 review, Opus Zine noted:
“Both ‘Eudaimonia’ and ‘Waiting for Sunrise’ are explorations in guitar ambience, especially the latter, which eschews any sort of percussion or any similar ‘earthly’ element for a golden sound that’s truly fitting given its title.”
These instrumentals not only underscore Lum’s technical skill but also enhance the album’s narrative by offering moments of quiet reverie amidst its rich vocal and lyrical explorations. Together, they serve as anchors of contemplative stillness, further defining Idylls as an immersive and introspective journey.
Critical Reception and Legacy
Upon its release, Idylls received widespread critical acclaim for its ethereal beauty and unique sound. Music From The Empty Quarter praised the album’s “sumptuous acoustics, beautiful female voice, and sweet harmony rising to glorious heights.” Industrial Nation called it “like a cloud-ride to a heaven via angelic voices and delicate music,” while Ray Gun Magazine noted that “Idylls swims on waves of guitar and airy, otherworldly vocals.” Mute Magazine added, “It all flows together like a dream of some long, sun-drenched afternoon with a cool breeze now and then wafting through.” Permission Magazine described the album succinctly, “Idylls is a brilliant album.”
During its promotional cycle, songs from Idylls were featured on several influential compilations, which helped expand the band’s audience and cement their place in the ethereal and dream-pop scene. Forgo’ quickly became a standout track, appearing on several influential compilations like From Across This Gray Land No. 3 (1992), expanding the duo’s audience and establishing their reputation within the ethereal music scene. Other highlights include:
- Hyperium Promo-Sampler (Hyperium Records, 1992) “Scatter January”
- From Hypnotic to Hypersonic (Hyperium Records, 1992) “Noumena”
- Heavenly Voices Part 1 (Hyperium Records, 1993) “Love’s Labour’s Lost (Remix)”
- Beneath the Icy Floe Vol. 2 (Projekt Records, 1994) “Ladonna Dissima”
- Beneath the Icy Floe – Projekt Record’s Sampler (Hyperium Records, 1995) “This Endris Night”
These early appearances on samplers and compilations from Projekt and Hyperium Records helped establish Idylls as a cornerstone of the ethereal wave genre, drawing in fans of dream-pop, ambient, and gothic music alike.
Years after its release, Idylls continued to receive recognition, with tracks featured on retrospective compilations that underscored the album’s lasting influence. Highlights include:
- Darkwave: Music of the Shadows v2 (K-Tel, 2000) “Forgo”
- Within This Infinite Ocean (Projekt/Borders, 2001) – “This Endris Night”
- Projekt: The New Face of Goth (Projekt Records/Hot Topic, 2003) “This Endris Night”
- Cherry Stars Collide: Dream Pop, Shoegaze & Ethereal Rock 1986–1995 (2023) – “Stir About the Stars”
These later inclusions demonstrate the album’s enduring appeal and its role in shaping the ethereal wave genre. Decades later, Idylls remains a landmark release, described by Pop Matters in 2008 as:
“More akin to the lighter side of such darkwave stalwarts as Cocteau Twins, Love Is Colder than Death, and Projekt labelmate Black Tape for a Blue Girl.”
In 2007, Projekt Records celebrated the album’s enduring influence by releasing an expanded edition of Idylls, remastered by Ryan Lum to enhance its sonic clarity and further highlight its lasting legacy.
Conclusion:
Tracks like “Dead Language” highlight the transcultural and timeless qualities of Idylls, blending Middle English influences, spiritual abstraction, and Indian classical rhythms into a soundscape that feels ancient yet modern. Its inclusion alongside songs like “This Endris Night” and “Stir About the Stars” reinforces the album’s status as an ethereal exploration of spirituality, nature, and emotional resonance.
Decades later, Idylls remains a landmark of the ethereal wave genre, praised for its immersive beauty and timeless innovation. Its ability to transport listeners to dreamlike realms ensures its enduring appeal, solidifying Love Spirals Downwards as one of the most important voices in ethereal music.