The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud

Infobox musical artist
Name = The moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud


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Origin = Austria
Genre = Dark ambient
Experimental
Folk
Martial
Post-industrial
Years_active = 1993–1998
Label = Arthur's Round Table
Associated_acts =
URL =
Current_members = Albin Julius
Alzbeth
Past_members =
Notable_instruments =

The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud (TMLHBAC) was an Austrian musical duo comprised of Albin Julius and Alzbeth. Their music reflected their deep fascination with myriad aspects of European medievalism including ritual, clerical chants and the daily experience of the peasantry.

Overview

Their music combined modern electronics, tape loops and samplers with medieval instruments such as the shawm, hurdy gurdy, and Hexenscheit. Alzbeth was the primary vocalist for the group and often sang traditional songs in numerous archaic languages including Middle High German, Latin and Old French. Julius provided distorted and backup vocals.

When performing live, the band often played in old churches, fortresses, medieval prisons and theatres that provided an appropriate atmosphere for their static, militaristic performances.

Early on, the band provided no official photographs or any more information outside of a Swiss mailing address found inside of the albums. The band rarely appeared live or granted interviews. No songs were ever given official titles. After their split, both of the duo were considerably more vocal and promotional images were released.

With each subsequent release the band presented themes traveling further into European history and becoming more martial, choral and bombastic in approach, culminating in their final album; the largely World War II-inspired "The Smell Of Blood But Victory" (1997).

In 1998, the duo, also a couple, parted ways and recorded no new material. All of the group's music was released on their own "Arthur's Round Table" record label and distributed by World Serpent Distribution.

Post-Split

At the same time as the recording of "The Smell Of Blood But Victory", Julius released material on a then-side project he called Der Blutharsch. This has subsequently become Julius' main project after the split. Julius has since played live and released some Der Blutharsch covers of TMLHBAC material that he has claimed was originally intended for Der Blutharsch.

Alzbeth did erect an official TMLHBAC website and has said that she will be releasing material by a musical project of her own.

In 2000, Alzbeth released a book after the duo parted ways. This hard-back and cloth-bound book included lyrics, photographs and references for the historical themes used by the band.

In 2004, likely spurred by the bankruptcy of World Serpent Distribution and the subsequent out of print status for the band's entire catalogue, Alzbeth announced through her mailing list that Julius and she had decided to rerelease their back catalogue in some form in the future.

Discography

Albums and EPs

External links

Official

* [http://totem-records.com/art/band.htm Official The moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud site] (not accessible as of 07.03.08)
** [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216113812/http://totem-records.com/art/band.htm via Archive.org] (archived 2007-02-16)

Unofficial

* [http://www.fluxeuropa.com/mn0006-tmlhbac.htm FluxEuropa page]
* [http://drugie.here.ru/achtung/mlhdesc.htm Interview from Descent magazine]
* [http://www.myspace.com/tmlhbc Myspace Fan Page]