L'Âme Immortelle is an Austrian band that produces goth and aggrotech music. Many of L'Âme Immortelle's songs feature club-friendly danceable beats, melancholy or lovelorn lyrics in German or English, and juxtaposed harsh male and emotional female vocals. Current work has moved away from the band's electrogoth roots into the Neue Deutsche Härte (new German hardness) genre.

History

L'Âme Immortelle was formed in 1996 in Austria by friends Thomas Rainer and Hannes Medwenitsch. Soon vocalist Sonja Kraushofer, a former classmate of Rainer, joined and the band sought a record contract. They released their first album, Lieder die wie Wunden bluten in 1997 on MOS Records in Liechtenstein, which became popular in the underground German Goth subculture. In 1999, L'Âme Immortelle switched to Trisol Records. From 1998 through 2001, L'Âme Immortelle released another LP yearly, each bringing the band greater popularity. In 2002, Medwenitsch left the band. Kraushofer and Rainer recruited Ashley Dayour as a guitarist and the re-formed L'Âme Immortelle released a new single, Tiefster Winter in November 2002. In 2003, L'Âme Immortelle released Als die Liebe starb, as well as Seelensturm, a collection of re-issued and re-mixed early material.

In 2004, the band switched labels again, this time to major label Supersonic, a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. The first issue following the switch was a collaboration with OOMPH! on the non-album single Brennende Liebe (released as OOMPH! feat. L'Âme Immortelle); they also appeared in the video. Following that, L'Âme Immortelle released a new album, Gezeiten, which includes some of their most popular songs like 5 Jahre, Stumme Schreie and Fallen Angel. A significant change in L'Âme Immortelle's style is evident now that the band is on a major label; notably the electronic instrumentation of earlier work was less prominent in Gezeiten.

Their latest album Auf deinen Schwingen has been released on August 2006 along with Phönix single. The record also includes songs like "Wohin" which contains text from another famous LAI song called Aus den Ruinen, and Nur Du — a song which totally differs from older L'Âme Immortelle work. The music video for this song is a cartoon, an unusual thing for the band.

(Wikipedia)