Tryst Arcane and Emanuel Portelli (Hemplifier) teamed up for atmospheric/cinematic/post-rock/dark-folk album »Sun Of Other Days«!

Maltese duo Tryst Arcane and guitarist Emanuel Portelli (Hemplifier) teamed up for atmospheric/cinematic/post-rock/dark-folk album, »Sun Of Other Days«, which will be released independently on August 11th, 2023.

Watch a music video for the first single »LURA« below!

Tracklist:
01. Sun Of Other Days
02. August Reveries
03. Dissolution
04. Through Dimensions, Through Horizons
05. LURA

»LURA« reminisces about childhood summer days spent with friends and loved ones who are no longer with us. This song is homaging their memory while expressing deeply the wish to meet again by living a space-time shift, like a magical journey with the hope to actively re-live the experience of moments now only found stored in our memories. The lyrics were written by Alexia and Luciano Schembri who both lost their respective brothers who passed on before their time. Composed and arranged by Julian Grech, based on Emanuel Portelli’s guitar melodies.

Courtesy of Qabar PR:

»Sun Of Other Days« brings together the Maltese minimal dark duo Tryst Arcane and their compatriot Emanuel Portelli, the acclaimed guitarist who is a part of acts such as Victims of Creation, Hemplifier, Thy Legion, and Animamortua. Set for 11 August digitally, the collab album will be available on vinyl later this year.

The Collaboration:
This project came to life when Emanuel, isolated and recovering from Covid-19, reached out to Julian and Alexia – the duo behind Tryst Arcane – with guitar sketches he had recorded in early 2020 during his quarantine, instantly sparking their inspiration and prompting an exciting collaboration.

Emanuel’s tapping technique on electric guitar produced a warm, organic sound with a Mediterranean-vibe overtone, which had intrinsically enthused them to develop this mood into a theme album revolving around a typical Maltese summer from their childhood.

The Concept:
During this project, they’ve indulged in complete sonic experimentation, where the intention was to blend Emanuel’s clean guitars with classical piano passages and modified analog synth soundscapes. This release is characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures and arrangements that typically produce a hypnotic sonic experience, alluding the listener into a unique musical dimension. The synths’ “otherworldly sounds” recall imaginative sound waves found in the cosmos, which elicit a true feel of intense reminiscing and space-travel parallelisms.

With a Maltese/Mediterranean summer setting as its core theme, this album intends to speak to the inner child of many Maltese millennials, whose summer holidays meant days by the sea and rocky or sandy shores, the sun and the heat at night, the sea and the humid air, the shore’s sounds and scents, the traditional food and the ice-cream van, the family and friends, the adventures and imagination, the innocence and freedom.

For a multi-dimensional experience, this album’s aesthetics and promo material revolve around Malta’s coastal landscapes, possibly with authentic footage or photography taken by the sea during the ’70s, ’80s & ’90s to be used in various ways in order to achieve a nostalgic visual feel in the most natural way possible.

The Lyrics:
»Sun Of Other Days« offers conceptual and heterodox music, flanked by lyrics stemming from a deep nostalgic place. The lyrics (along with the composition and music arrangements) revolve around a supernatural journey as the protagonist is involved in a space-time displacement experience happening while reminiscing about her youth on a summer day by the sea.

The lyrics of the first four songs are in English; however, Tryst Arcane wanted to honor their native tongue with the ending track, »LURA«, which, contrary to the other four songs, is composed of a traditional song structure. Music has the unique ability to build connections and speak a language that knows no boundaries, and with this in mind, Tryst Arcane gives the overseas audience a chance to listen to a language that exclusively belongs to the small Maltese archipelago.

Credits:
Keys: Julian Grech
Guitar: Emanuel Portelli
Vocals: Alexia Baldacchino (MakabrAl)
Lyrics: Alexia Baldacchino (MakabrAl), except »LURA«: Alexia Baldacchino (MakabrAl) & Luciano Schembri

Album Cover: Charlo Pisani
Album Visual Design Concept: Alexia Baldacchino (MakabrAl)

Production, Recording, Mixing & Mastering: Julian Grech, Mellieha – Malta. 2021 – 2022

Pre-order: trystarcane.bandcamp.com (Vinyl will be available later this year)

Tryst Arcane:
Tryst Arcane is a duo from Malta, formed by Alexia (vocals – Memento Nostri) and Julian (keys – Nomad Son). Taking Alexia’s ethereal vocals and layering them over haunting cinematic soundscapes, organ sounds or brooding piano riffs, the duo strikes a deviant balance between traditional song standards and music that you’d find accompanying a dramatic moment on screen.

“Minimal Dark” is a term that the duo coined for this genre of music that is particularly pronounced in their debut album, »AUTUMN«. Being it shorn of percussive instruments but rather composed of only two elements, that of keys and vox, this album is imbued with a solemn dreaminess and serenity. »AUTUMN« was nominated for Best Alternative Album 2019 and Alexia for Best Song Writer 2019 at the Malta Music Awards 2019.

Emanuel Portelli:
Emanuel Portelli started studying guitar at the Euro Institute of Music in Malta at 17 years of age, where he studied under Marc Galea and earned RGT guitar practice certifications. Later on, he continued studying music theory under the supervision of Jonathan Ellul and earned the LCM certification. Currently, Emanuel has five active bands, is a session guitarist, and teaches guitar on a part-time basis.

With his band Hemplifier, Emanuel started organizing an underground Stoner Festival in 2021 called Reeferfest.

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well