The Luxembourg Signal

Bi-continental indie pop band the Luxembourg Signal were formed by members of the '90s American band Aberdeen, and like them have a keenly melodic, deeply heartfelt style. With the addition of members from the U.K., the group builds on the sound with lush keyboards and vocals dreamy enough for the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Their early work, like 2014's self-titled album, cut the melodies with guitar noise, but by the time of 2020's The Long Now, the band were making wide-screen dream pop that filled the speakers with relaxed hooks and enveloping warmth Following the breakup of Aberdeen in the early 2000s, members contributed to bands like Fonda and Trembling Blue Stars, and vocalist Beth Arzy relocated from Southern California to the United Kingdom. Original Aberdeen members Arzy, drummer Brian Espinosa, and guitarist Johnny Joyner joined friends Betsy Moyer (vocals) and Ginny Pitchford (keys) to form a band that melded their indie pop roots with noisier impulses. The band worked on recordings in Los Angeles when Arzy came to visit. Following years of work writing and in the studio, the band's debut single, Distant Drive, arrived in 2014 on Shelflife Records. A self-titled full-length album followed later that same year. Soon after, the quintet added two more members, guitarist Kelly Davis and bassist Daniel Kumiega, and played a series of live dates across the U.K. and Europe, including a prime spot at 2015's Indietracks Festival. Later in the year they released a split single with the band Soft Science that featured a Robert Hampson (Main/Loop) remix of "Dying Star," a track from their debut. The band soon began work on another album with engineer Mark Rains in Los Angeles. The resulting Blue Field had a fuller sound, as might befit a band with seven members, and also sported a guest appearance by Bobby Wratten of the Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars on one track. The record's release was preceded by the "Laura Palmer" single in June of 2017, and the full album was issued by Shelflife later that year. The group reunited with Rains for the recording of their third album The Long Now. Their lush sound remained unchanged, though the arrangements allowed for more melancholy to seep through the melodies this time out. Old friend David Klotz of Fonda dropped by to add vocals to one track and the album was released by Shelflife and Spinout Nuggets in October of 2020.
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