Archivio dell'autore: tristeisr

(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 199: Songs of Green Pheasant

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Songs of Green Pheasant

Duncan Sumpner, artist and teacher from Oughtibridge in Sheffield is Songs of Green Pheasant since 2005, when his self-titled debut album was released on FatCat. And since then, he has carved out a little space in the most hidden part of our hearts, with his fragile and ambitious songs that search for poetry in the noise and chaos of life. In the following couple of years, Songs Of Green Pheasant had two more records on FatCat: Aerial Days (2006) and Gyllyng Street (2007). Then, after a five year’s hiatus, Sumpner and his project returned with Soft Wounds, via Rusted Rail, “micro-Independent record label” based in Galway, Ireland. After self releasing two mini albums in 2015, he took another five year’s hiatus, until he released When The Weather Clears, out again via Rusted Rail on December 2020 (and reprinted a couple of times since). We had to wait four more years to have a new double A-sided digital single Have Patience/Street of Mirrors, two epic songs that paved the way for the 2025 release of the album Sings The Passing, another step forward in the musical evolution of Songs of Green Pheasant. The album sleeve features a sumptuous surrealist artwork by Sumpner himself.

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Lila Tristram – Overtake (single premiere)

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Lila Tristram, musician, fiction writer, artist and teacher now based in Wiltshire is a friend of TRISTE©. We fell in love with Black and White Memories Ignited by the Scent of Springtime Explode in Colour released in December 2022 as a collaborative project with The Last Dinosaur’s Jamie Cameron,a nd followed her since. After the intimate home, recorded, produced and mixed by herself and released in 2023, Lila got hidden for two years in a remote countryside studio, put together a 5-piece band and emerged with an elegiac indie-rock record, emerge with an elegiac indie-rock album, the release of which is, at the moment, not yet announced. In the meantime, while the wait for the announcement of her new album becomes more and more feverish, Lila released some songs from the album: Sounds Like Easter, and Baby were both premiered here, and Closer was also presented on TRISTE©. In 2025 Promising and Matha May came out and now we have Overtake, a new, song from the yet untitled album, that will be available on all major streaming platforms from tomorrow, May 16th, but that we have the honour and opportunity to have here on TRISTE© as an exclusive premiere.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 198: Sean Armstrong

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Sean Armstrong (©Rachel Taylor)

Sean Armstrong is a singer/recorder/player who fits into the barking grooves in the floorboards; sits on the ground, surrounded by a web of cables, and dreams that it is swept away. Armstrong recorded his first song (the song was about squirrels) at 5 years old, and could never lose a fascination with the magic of music. Sean lives in Berlin with long term musical collaborator Rachel Taylor aka Rocky Lorelei. Together they started Rehberge Records, a small tape label named after their favourite park, and play as Slipper. Armstrong’s first solo record on Rehberge, The Technical Times, was out in 2022 and in April 2025 we had the oppotunity and honour to host the world premiere of the title track from his new album, Velvet Ever After which is out now on cassette/online. And it’s magnificent. The best thing you’re going to listen to in 2025. His high-pitched, thin and melodic voice is a caress and his guitar is a balm. Think about a (more) demure and psychedelic version of Nick Drake, living secluded in Laurel Canyon.

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Luigi Pavone – Babies

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Francesco Giordani per TRISTE©

Luigi Pavone è nato nel 1985, come me.
Il 1985 è un anno che, almeno nella memoria collettiva italiana, si lega principalmente ad una delle più massicce nevicate della storia meteorologica nazionale. Ma il 1985 fu anche l’anno del Live Aid e di We Are The World,  di romanzi memorabili come Trilogia di New York, Meno di Zero, Meridiano di sangue e Atlante occidentale e di album non meno importanti come Steve McQueen, Songs from the Big Chair, Meat Is Murder e Psychocandy. Nel 1985, accendendo la radio, avreste potuto sentire Take On Me e poi magari Close to Me, mentre nel cinema più vicino vi avrebbero molto probabilmente accolto pellicole straordinarie come Ritorno al futuro, Brazil, The Goonies e Breakfast Club.
Insomma il 1985 sembrerebbe esser stato, a posteriori, un anno non così brutto da vivere. O in cui nascere.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 197: Rhymies

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Rhymies (©Jess Lynn Goss)

Rhymies is the solo project of Lauren Matsui (guitarists with San Francisco shoegaze act Seablite and post-punk outfit Neutrals), and I Dream Watching is her debut EP, out now via Dandy Boy Records. For this project Lauren has traded her two suitcases of guitar pedals for an assortment of Korgs, Rolands and Yamahas. The songs are built on arpeggiated melodies and sequences rooted in the nostalgia of an 80s dance party. The gauzy textures serve as a perfect base for Matsui’s breathy, wistful vocals. Often glimpsed through the mire of swirling guitars on Seablite records, here they take center stage, to great effect. Written, arranged, and recorded at home in her living room, the new EP centers on Matsui’s voice and her synths. The title track brings to mind another artistically successful convert from guitar-to-synth-pop, Patience (Roxanne Clifford of Veronica Falls), while Crashing Lead somehow fuses the bounce of early Madonna with the ethereal, surreal vocals of Cocteau Twins. It’s the closer (and shortest track at 2:40), Hesperian (Again) which points to what we can hope for in the future. It builds one layer at a time to an ecstatic crescendo, before abruptly leaving us with only the memory of the refrain – “When’s it happening?”. For Rhymies, if there’s any justice, the answer is NOW.

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