Lucifer's Marginia, recorded 1989-1993: Another Lost Progressive Classic from Japan

Will the proggy wonders never cease?

Not if I maintain my wonderful contacts and the friends who discover these past masterpieces...  (oh how I revere and respect you...  don't ever stop the flow of musical honey... )  And I thought we had plumbed the depths of Japanese music from this era!  It seems no...  Still no end in sight to the discoveries.  We are only half way around the circumference of the world here and this ship is still rocking the waves...  and I hope I die on this exploratory voyage with no harbour ever in view...

Obviously this is similar to Mr. Sirius, Providence, and all the other symphonic-styled Japanese bands, with a bit more Renaissance-style folk thrown in.  But just listen to the endlessly gorgeous digital sound achieved in the brightly coloured Endless Green:

If there is a sight for sore eyes, then this is a hear for sore ears-- at least this fan's ears.  Unfortunately I can't say the rest of the album holds up to the standards of this song, clearly the most progressive one on the CD.

Turning our attention now to a search for more information I saw from The Great Google that oddly enough the band is not on discogs yet, and rare even on rateyourmusic (something I am always quite proud to see), but from proggnosis comes this write-up:

Lucifer is most likely unknown outside Japan however they were mostly unknown inside Japan as well. [haha! --editor] The band played between 1983 to 1994 releasing 6 albums - the first 5 as Cassettes and the last one as a CD.
All the six albums were only distributed in friends though the 6th one, Marginia was released by Marquee in 1997.

From the band's web site:

LUCIFER started as an project to create original music in August 1983. Recording was the main activity instead of forming a band to play live. Over 36 persons joined the project for 10 years from various music backgrounds such as progressive rock, classic, choral music, folk and pops. Each song as an project include several members finally created 4 cassette albums and 2 CD albums, totally 6 album with 62 songs. In the latter years, the project tend to a permanent band and the 2 CDs are with the band. Also 4 live concerts and 6 small stages such as weddings were done in that years, too.
The main concept of the band was to "Be away from stereotype thinking and genre". In that sense, a song is not a song, vocal part is not a main melody even if they were sang with lyrics. In some songs, lyrics have less meanings just to put a good sound in an vocal part as instrument combinating consonant sounds and vowel sounds to create a coined word. Latter years the songs came more un-experimental but still the lyrics remain as series of keywords to enhance the image of the sound. Thus the violin usually is the main meledy singing the songs instead of the vocals. In this reason, some songs are basically instrumental with a few vocal solo part appearing like a guitar solo.

The band aimed to express the possibility and interest of music and also to tell that technique is not indispensable if you love music and want to create something. Since the project started, some members were very good with their instruments but some were not. But still they joined and create the music together. The latter years the band had the permanent members with high technique and good sense. After 10 years, LUCIFER disbanded in 19 February, 1994 to find out another way of music. The main members of the band are now creating music as a band called KHAREZ.

More information:

Reviewed by Hideki on 09 Feb 2005

Lucifer left 6 albums however almost of them are hardly to find. Their last album, Marginia, which is considered their best work is the only work easily to obtain for reasons of circulation.
In celebrattion of the wedding between band members Yamashita Chiako and Shinyashiki Noboru, Marginia was released in 1993. The band at that time consisting of 12 performers, 7 males (Kataoka Hideo,Tachibana,Ishikawa Shinichiro,Shinyashiki,Kooriyama,Nanjo,Furukawa) and 5 women (Furudate ,Ishikawa Yumi,Kataoka Itsuko,Imai ,Yamashita) but there is no single song played by all 12 persons on a track.

If you can imagine Renaissance, Mike Oldfield and Malicorne, you are choosing music that is close in many ways to Lucifer who had a musical style thaty is hardly to be found in Japan. Lucifer play progressive folk rock which is sometimes produced in Western Europe and they add a little of Japanese flavor.

I cannot say that any other bands fit with this one like two peas in a pod. You can feel some flavor of referencial groups (such as Renaissance) in Marginia, but please don't expect an intense resemblance between them. Being formed by hobby rather than as a job, Lucifer are fertile in originality. Though they elaborately produced Marginia, I sense amateurishness in some parts for example when compared to major label albums, you can detect a weakness for arrangement. This quality is in fact a strength - not a weakness and I don't mind it, I love it. If Marginia were released from major label, I don't think it would not maintain this freshness or naivety. Whereas they may gain stability on the surface and in the details - with a major label treatment they would probably lose heartwarming handmade creativity that make this album stand out.  Tracks 5, 6, 12, 13 and 14 are sung in Japanese. The remaining songs are sung in English. Although tracks 12, 13, and 14 are bonus,they are one of noticeable points in this CD.


A band worth pursuing further, given the above.
Did I say we plumbed the depths of Japanese music?  Not when there are 6 more releases from these guys to be archaeologically unearthed and brought back into the light...