LIVE from Beyond the Darkness; Lussuria performs on My Castle of Quiet, this Thu/Fri.

Having named his project after an ultra-obscure Joe D'Amato sexploitation film, Lussuria's Jim Mroz shares this writer's passion for the unusual, much-maligned and misunderstood subset of haunted, twisted, visually stunning cinema of the 1970s and 80s of which D'Amato was a major player. Even were this not the case, I would still have been taken in immediately by Lussuria's resonant, opaque sonic creations, coming out of Jim's mixer like coded maps of the subconscious.

I first heard Lussuria on a split cassette with Obscure, released by amourtout productions in France (the label run by Shantidas, of Aluk Todolo and Diamatregon.) It was my more-favored side of the tape—a patient, rumbling soundtrack to a nightmare, with an immersed narrative...something about angels.

Jim is an original member of The Forgotten and tour player with French black metal legends Celestia. The Lussuria releases (cassettes by Hospital Productions, amourtout, Destructive Industries, Razors and Medicine and probably others) are chilling stuff, even troubling—like listening to a feeling always just out of reach. Where some of Lussuria's contemporaries in the genre bring the heaviness with pedal-punching, screaming, and ear-splitting volume, Jim chooses the subtle route to your soul, like a dreamy, obscure film soundtrack, where what sound like murmurs, footsteps, death-organ drones, and fetid mausoleum winds paint the shifting audial landscape.

Lussuria creates two live, in-the-moment sets on My Castle of Quiet, just for the Castleheads.

Scum-covered key made of bone opens latch @ midnight.
Lussuria, set one @ 12:30 approx.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

Witness below a video I shot of Lussuria, live in Nyack, NY, this past November.

Lussuria from My Castle of Quiet on Vimeo.