L'Âme Immortelle (French for "the immortal soul") is an Austrian
darkwave
Dark wave, or darkwave, is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, ro ...
duo formed in 1996. Many of L'Âme Immortelle's songs feature melancholy or lovelorn lyrics in German or English, and juxtaposed harsh male and emotional female vocals. In 2004 they switched label to the now defunct Supersonic Records (a subsidiary of
Sony BMG
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...
) and their work moved away from the band's electronic roots to the heavier
Neue Deutsche Härte
(; "New German Hardness", sometimes abbreviated as NDH), also known as dance-metal, is a crossover style drawing from Neue Deutsche Welle, alternative metal, groove metal, electro-industrial and techno. It developed in Germany and Austria d ...
(''New German hardness'') genre. In 2008 they went back to their former label Trisol and they returned to their musical roots.
History
Founding
L'Âme Immortelle was formed in 1996 in Austria by friends Thomas Rainer and Hannes Medwenitsch. Soon vocalist Sonja Kraushofer, a former classmate of Rainer, joined and the band sought a record contract. They released their first album, ''
Lieder die wie Wunden bluten'', in 1997 on MOS Records in
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...
, which became popular in the underground German
dark culture.
Trisol Records
In 1999, L'Âme Immortelle switched to Trisol Records (part of
Trisol Music Group
The Trisol Music Group, GmbH (or Trisol), is a German business group and record label headquartered in Dieburg. Owning multiple sublabels, they specialize in producing musical works pertaining to darkwave, dark folk, gothic rock, deathro ...
GmbH). From 1998 through 2001, L'Âme Immortelle released another LP yearly, each bringing the band greater popularity. In 2002, Medwenitsch left the band Kraushofer and Rainer recruited Ashley Dayour (from the Austrian band
Whispers in the Shadow) as a guitarist and the re-formed L'Âme Immortelle released a new single, ''Tiefster Winter'' in November 2002. In 2003, L'Âme Immortelle released ''Als die Liebe starb'', as well as ''Seelensturm'', a collection of re-issued and re-mixed early material.
Supersonic Records
In 2004, the band switched labels again, this time to major label Supersonic, a subsidiary of
Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout ...
.
The first issue following the switch was a collaboration with
Oomph!
Oomph! is a German Rock music, rock band from Wolfsburg, formed in 1989. The band pioneered the movement. Their work contains lyrics in both English and German, with a shift towards German exclusively on recent albums (''GlaubeLiebeTod'', '' ...
on the initially non-album (it was later inlided on a re-edition of the album ''
Wahrheit oder Pflicht'') single "
Brennende Liebe" (released as Oomph! feat. L'Âme Immortelle); they also appeared in the video. Following that, L'Âme Immortelle released a new album, ''
Gezeiten'', which includes some of their most popular songs like "5 Jahre", "Stumme Schreie" and "Fallen Angel". A significant change in L'Âme Immortelle's style is evident now that the band is on a major label, notably the electronic instrumentation of earlier work was less prominent in ''Gezeiten''.
Their eighth album ''Auf deinen Schwingen'' was released in August 2006 along with the single "Phönix". The record also includes songs like "Wohin" which contains text from another famous LAI song "Aus den Ruinen", and "Nur Du"—a song which totally differs from older L'Âme Immortelle works. The music video for this song is a cartoon, an unusual thing for the band.
Out since 22 June on Gun Supersonic is LAI's 10 year retrospective best-of album ''10 Jahre''. ''10 Jahre'' presents the highlights of their career with hit tracks and fan favourites taken from each of their albums. This release also includes two brand new exclusive tracks,"Let Me Fall" and "Come Closer".
Return to Trisol
In December 2007, Trisol Records announced that L'Âme Immortelle had returned to the Trisol label to release a new album, ''Namenlos''. Released 1 January 2008, ''Namenlos'' is a two-CD double-album. Trisol's press release denied that the band's label switch was motivated by poor performance of its last Supersonic album ''Auf deinen Schwingen'', but hinted that the band was returning to its pre-Supersonic style.
On 18 November 2011, the band announced 27 January 2012 as the release date for their tenth studio album ''Momente''. On 27 April 2012, a new album, ''Fragmente'', featuring remixed versions of 10 songs from ''Momente'' (five by Rainer, five by Kraushofer) was released
Solo projects
In 2000, Thomas Rainer released the first album, ''Gesellschaft:Mord'', for his side project with Joachim Sobczak, Siechtum. The following two albums were ''Diagnose:Zeit'' and ''Kreuz:X:Feuer'', which featured remixes by
God Module
God Module is an American dark electronic band founded in 1999 from Orlando, Florida. Since 2006 they have been based out of Washington state. God Module is currently signed to Metropolis Records.
History
God Module was formed in 1999 by Jasy ...
and Megadump.
In 2007, Thomas Rainer released his debut album under the
Nachtmahr moniker. The first release for this electro/industrial project was titled "Kunst ist Krieg". In 2008, the second album, titled "Feuer frei!", was released.
Persephone, a.k.a. Sonja Kraushofer, returns with a fourth album. After the Trisol release "Home" (2002), "Atma Gyan" (2004) and "Mera Sangeet Kho Gaya" (2004), "Letters to a Stranger" is to be released on the Curzweyhl label.
Ashley Dayour, the long term guitarist of the band, released several records with his other band,
Whispers in the Shadow. The last one was "Yesterday Is Forever" in 2020.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
* ''Seelensturm'' (2003)
* ''
10 Jahre – Best Of'' (June 2007)
* ''
Best of Indie Years'' (May 2008)
* ''Unsterblich - 20 Jahre L'ame Immortelle'' (February 2016)
* ''Letztes Licht'' (January 2019)
Singles
DVD
* ''Disharmony – Live!'' (2003)
* ''Jenseits der Schatten'' (2008)
References
External links
Official website*
Official fan club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ame Immortelle
Austrian dark wave musical groups
GUN Records artists
Musical groups established in 1996
1996 establishments in Austria