Love Spirals Downwards was begun sometime in the late 80’s by multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ryan Lum, but didn’t truly take flight until the addition of then-girlfriend, Suzanne Perry, as vocalist in 1991. Two of their demo tracks (“Mediterranea” and “Forgo”) were featured on the From Across this Grey Land 3 compilation released by indie label Projekt Records, garnering international attention from fans and critics alike who clamored to hear more from this mysterious duo who incorporated elements of ethereal music, folk and world music, and electronica.

Dissatisfied with current trends and styles in much of today’s pop music, our music is a unique blend of what we find to be aesthetically pleasing. To us, our music transcends any one pigeonhole categorization into one particular style or genre. Elements from East Indian music, psychedelic rock, and ethereal – among others – can be found in our music. In creating atmosphere, we meld “exotically” tuned and processed acoustic — as well as electric — guitars with female vocals and percussion. In breaking with more conventional vocals, we completely abandon the use of language as a conveyor of thought and emotion in hopes that the entire musical piece, instrumental and vocals, work as one artistic expression. — Love Spirals Downwards, 1991

Over their 8 year history together, Love Spirals Downwards released four 10,000+ selling albums on Projekt; Idylls (1992), Ardor (1994), Ever (1996), and Flux (1998), plus 1 single, Sideways Forest (1996), and 1 retrospective collection Temporal: A Collection of Music Past & Present (2000). LSD also contributed to dozens of compilation albums over the decades, including unique mixes for the Hyperium Records album, Hy! From Hypnotic to Hypersonic in 1992, the 50 Years of Sunshine album released by Silent Records in 1993, and a 7″ flexi disc included in The Altered Mind 13 magazine that same year. Two cover recordings of Projekt’s flagship band, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, were featured on Of These Reminders in 1994, while a cover of Dr. Seuss’ “Welcome Christmas” was included on the 1995 Projekt album, ‘Excelsis (v.1): A Dark Noel.’

Primarily a studio recording project, the duo performed live only rarely — generally in conjunction with Projekt Festivals — and almost always acoustically. Love Spirals Downwards’ first live performance didn’t even take place until 1995, and their last concert was in 1998, in support of their final studio album, Flux. Lum continued promotions of Flux and it’s follow-up, Temporal: A Collection of Music Past & Present, via DJ sets in clubs or record stores (such as the Virgin Megastore), on radio programs, intimate appearances at coffee shops or events, and online.

In late 2007 Projekt released Love Spirals Downwards’ out-of-print debut album, Idylls, and follow-up, Ardor. These beautifully redesigned digipac CDs were completely remastered from the original DAT masters — along with extra material including live recordings, compilation-only tracks, and out-takes from the original album recording sessions — hand selected and assembled by Lum.

A Bandcamp page was launched for the band in 2014 to release the long-awaited Live album that Lum had begun work on in 1999. Also added to the music store as a digital download was the last song the band completed, a recording of “Little Drummer Boy,” plus the remastered reissues of ‘Idylls‘ and ‘Ardor.’ In 2017 an expanded version of the long out of print “Sideways Forest” single was released to both the Bandcamp and other digital music stores, containing previously unreleased versions of the song. In 2019, the Temporal comp was added to Bandcamp with threee additional songs — including a 2013 re-recording of “Mirrors A Still Sky” that isn’t found on any other digital music store.

2020 brought a double length reissue of the band’s out of print 3rd album, Ever. The worldwide quarantine gave Lum ample opportunity to dig through his vaults for the original DAT tapes to master the entire album afresh. While perusing the DATS, he unearthed several previously unreleased instrumentals, as well as some cover songs, alternate mixes, and a song that had been leaked as an mp3 back in 2001 but never had a proper release. The full 22-song remastered reissue is only available for download via Bandcamp, but a 19 track version (minus the 3 cover songs) is available on Apple, Spotify, and other digital audio services.

For its 25th anniversary in 2023, Lum completed and released the ‘Flux Deluxe Edition,‘ which features a number of previously unreleased tracks from the ‘Flux‘ recording era. In addition to the 9 original tracks remastered from the original DAT masters are 8 previously unreleased songs, a rare 1997 live performance, a brand new 2023 recording, plus 2 remixes and another album out-take from the band’s retrospective album, ‘Temporal: A Collection of Music Past & Present.‘ In 2024, a limited edition white vinyl run of ‘Flux’ featuring just the 9 original album tracks was released by Lost In Ohio.

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The WikiQuote page on Love Spirals Downwards hosts a great collection of sourced quotes from interviews over their career that help tell the story of the band.

FOOTNOTE: In 2000, Lum began working with new collaborator, Anji Bee, under the shortened moniker of Lovespirals. The duo have released a half dozen albums, numerous singles and EPs, remixes of and collaborations with other bands, and even one album released under the name Anji Bee. Perry, meanwhile, formed a new group in 2002 called Melodyguild, releasing one single and an EP via Projekt Records. Perry has also contributed to several songs by Falling You –including “An Angel, Ameliorate” from the NAR award-winning album, Human — plus one track with Sleepthief. You can read more in the Current Musical Projects section.