In March of 1989—before recruiting vocalist Tara Van Flower, and signing to Project Records, Tempe, Arizona’s Lycia issued their debut release, Wake. The project was originally the solo work of Mike VanPortfleet, who provides vocals and guitar on the 6 track debut, along with John Fair who provides bass and drum programming.
In early 1989 Mike VanPortfleet and John Fair approached Orphanage Records, a local Phoenix based label specializing in dark and experimental styles, with a few recently recorded Lycia demo songs. Along with those, four new songs were recorded Nothing, Wake, The Bells and Down There. From Foam was reworked and an old unfinished song This Decline was also added to the release.
In March of 1989 Orphanage put out Wake on cassette. 50 copies were hand duplicated by Lycia, half going to Orphanage for local distribution and the other half kept by the band. From there Wake went unnoticed until it was re-released on CD by Projekt Records in 1993. In the late 1990s Wake went out of print. Now for the first time ever ‘Wake’ will be getting a release on vinyl.
The reissue if via Portland Oregon’s dark music label Cercle Social Records. The album art ir prodivded by Susan Jennings. Limited Edition, with only 300 copies produced, coming with deluxe packaging in two variants: clear with marine splatter and raspberry swirl.