Search - Lumerians :: Transmalinnia

Lumerians are garage scholars of the weird. The Oakland-based quintet could be named for Lemuria, the long-lost sunken continent ruled by primitive mystics. But note the spelling: Lumerians, not Lemurians. Sure Lumerians dig lemurs plenty, but they love lumiere especially son et lumiere, the fusion of sound and light that is one of the hallmarks of deep trance and media. Lumerians play droning dance music for the soul you forgot you had - the noise of the billions of switches in your brain shutting off and on in perfect harmony. Three years after their self-released EP Lumerians are ready to unleash their debut full length Transmalinnia, an immersive odyssey beyond the senses five.

Inspired by the transcendental visions of artist and poet Eugene Von Bruenchenchein, the album takes its name from his cosmic fingerpainting that illuminates the cover. While Transmalinnia's sound palette evokes primitive analog witchery, Lumerians hunger for the future. As sensitive to texture and repetition as an electronic act, the band is propelled by voodoo rhythms, stripped-down organ psych and fuzzed out space disco, travelling freely through worlds both vaguely familiar and largely uncharted. In the studio, a former church turned recording studio and brewery they haunt in the Murder Dubbs of Oakland, they compose their music as a single entity probing the unknown, conjuring resonances until songs emerge.

Live, it is all about the dance; at once a visceral and psychological encounter. Flickering visions are projected, keyboards buzz, drums pound, bodies sway and minds melt. As the expanded cinema projections that intensify their live shows suggest, the band is constantly pushing their sounds toward musical synesthesia. The vibrant evocations and tribal rumblings are so intoxicating that sensory registers are crossed: sonics becomes optics, music becomes vision, psychedelia becomes phantasmagoria. While the music draws from many sources, it is focused on exploratory visions of other worlds and states of being. So by all means open your mind, but watch where you step.