This morning I was sitting as usual on the balcony, drinking my coffee, checking my emails and watching the sun rise. While surfing the web for queer content I stumbled, again, upon Austria.

“Die lesbischen Filmtage – Graz” (The lesbian Filmfestival in Graz), which showed mostly Hollywood movies, will find its end on Saturday the 22^nd of November with a concert of Clara Luzia. Among the 6 gender-mixed band members there is Clara Luzia herself, writing the songs, playing the guitar and singing. Listen to the song ‘Morninglight’ here.

Clara

Looking at the picture my interest was  aroused and I visited their MySpace and official website. While still reading the history of the band, their music started to play and I got kinda lost in it.

This melancholy, brought on by intense lines, sung with a clear, soft voice and cheerful guitar sounds, gets a balance of hope with the “funky” play with rhythm.

I found myself back with the feeling of one of those mornings, sitting outside after a night spent crying and my heart full of love disaster. When exactly in the moment the bubble of desperation enwrapped me completely, my eyes caught on something very random. Children going to school, a bus stopping in front of my house, the sun shining through the clouds…something that happens every day but I totally missed in my focus of my own pain. It’s the moment when life comes back into one’s body, realizing that the world continued, only oneself stuck in drama. Fresh air, a minute of awareness, one last tear and the decision to move on.

‘Heartattack’

Clara Luzia sings about love and how fragile it is without neither downplaying the pain it can bring nor the beauty it already brought, smoothing a way for a new point of view on the world. The sound of their Indie-Acoustic-Pop style reminds me to a mix of the tender Sophie Zelmani with a pinch of Kate Nash.

When her name was still Clara Luzia Maria Humpel, she was part of the band ‘Alalie Lilt’ together with her sister Veronika and a girl named Elisabeth Gettinger. With the years they grew to a sextet, released two albums (‘Cyclopedia’, ‘What is gone doesn't necessarily disappear’) until Clara left the band to start a “solo project”.

Since then the band Clara Luzia not only released 2 great albums called ‘Railroad Tracks’ and “The long memory’, but also, besides their own concerts, opened the ones of international stars like Sarah Bettens. In 2008 they were honored with the Amadeus Austrian Music Award for being the “Alternative Act of the year”.

Clara is openly gay and says “that being in the closet was never an option” and she was “attracted to women since Kindergarten”. Such an early good taste and so much visibility has to be rewarded. So everyone who has the chance to visit their live act on November 22^nd at 21:00 in “Postgarage” (Graz) should seize it. If you can’t go, visit their website, listen to their songs on MySpace and get their albums, somewhere.

EurOut thinks: Great musicians with a talent for leading us through the journey of love!

 Picture: www.claraluzia.com/