4AD Announces His Name Is Alive’s How Ghosts Affect Relationships Boxset

Warren Defever’s long-running His Name Is Alive may not be considered part of the classic “4AD sound” à la Cocteau Twins or Dead Can Dance. Nevertheless, his strange, beguiling music helped solidify 4AD Records’ reputation as a home for uniquely beautiful and otherworldly music. Working with a constantly shifting list of collaborators, Defever released seven His Name Is Alive albums on 4AD before shifting to other labels like time STEREO, Silver Mountain, and Disciples.

4AD recently announced that they’re reissuing His Name Is Alive’s first three albums — Livonia (1990), Home Is in Your Head (1991), and Mouth by Mouth (1993) — in a massive 6xLP, 77-track limited edition boxset titled How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990 – 1993. The albums have been “painstakingly remastered” by Defever from the original analog tapes and will be joined by three LPs’ worth of bonus and unreleased material.

The boxset — which will be limited to 1,000 physical copies — will also be graced by new artwork by Chris Bigg that’s been “respectfully reimagined” from Vaughan Oliver/v23’s original artwork as well as a 36-page book by Martin Aston that chronicles His Name Is Alive’s early days. Here’s the complete How Ghosts Affect Relationships tracklist:

Livonia (2024 Remastered Edition)

1. As We Could Ever
2. E Nicolle (Introduction)
3. If July (2024 Remaster)
4. Some and I
5. Fossil (Verse)
6. E Nicolle
7. Caroline’s Supposed Demon
8. Fossil
9. Reincarnation
10. You and I Have Seizures
11. How Ghosts Affect Relationships
12. Darkest Dreams
13. July (Strings)
14. Caroline (Strings)
15. Fossil (Strings)
16. Ghosts (Strings)
17. Livonia (Ryko Version)

Home Is in Your Head (2024 Remastered Edition)

1. Are You Comin’ Down This Weekend?
2. Her Eyes Were Huge Things
3. The Charmer
4. Hope Called in Sick
5. My Feathers Needed Cleaning
6. The Well
7. There’s Something Between Us and He’s Changing My Words
8. The Phoenix, a Pool of Ice
9. Are We Still Married?
10. Put Your Finger in Your Eye
11. Home Is in Your Head
12. Why People Disappear
13. Here Eyes Are Huge
14. Save The Birds
15. Chances Are We Are Mad
16. Mescalina
17. Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Out
18. Very Bad a Bitter Hand
19. Beautiful and Pointless
20. Tempe
21. Spirit and Body
22. Love’s a Fish Eye
23. Dreams Are of the Body
24. Man on the Silver Mountain
25. Are We Still Married?
26. Is This the Way the Tigers Do?
27. We Hold the Land in Great Esteem
28. The Dirt Eaters (Original Version)
29. Tempe (Rehearsal)
30. Her Eyes Were Huge Things (Live)
31. Dreams Are of the Body (Live)
32. Man on the Silver Mountain (Demo)
33. Mass
34. Slow Train Crash

Mouth by Mouth (2024 Remastered Edition)

1. Baby Fish Mouth
2. Lip
3. Cornfield
4. In Every Ford
5. Lord, Make Me a Channel Of Your Peace
6. Drinks, Dress, and Ink
7. Where Knock Is Open Wide
8. Can’t Go Wrong Without You
9. Jack Rabbits
10. Sort Of
11. Sick
12. Blue Moon
13. Ear
14. Lemon Ocean
15. The Torso
16. The Dirt Eaters
17. The Homesick Waltz
18. Endless Things
19. My Moon’s in Your Yard (Demo)
20. Harmonic Song (Demo)
21. Roky — Demo
22. My Dad (Demo)
23. Gospel (Demo)
24. London Lost (Demo
25. Drink, Dress, Ink (Demo)
26. Baby Fish Mouth (Demo)

How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990 – 1993 will be released by 4AD on September 27, 2024; preorder on Bandcamp.

Related: Warren Defever did a short interview with A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed where he talked about His Name Is Alive’s first three albums, working with Ivo Watts-Russell, and meeting the Quay Brothers, who directed videos for “Are We Still Married?” and “Can’t Go Wrong Without You.”