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Toksa

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5th July 2004 - New album close to finished

Tristania has returned from 9 weeks in the TopRoom studio and report great confidence in the new-recorded material. Only minor elements remain before everything is completed. The final title has not yet been decided, but the planned release date is 18th of October. The band is anxious to release this album and show their fans what they have been up to these last few years. They are also looking forward to get back on tour and present the new material live.

Anders' summary of the new album is "heavy and organic". They are working on a comprehensive studio report, which we will post here on the site in the next few days.

 

5th July 2004 - Tour in planning

The next few days will reveal the dates for the first tour after the release of the new album. It will be an extensive European tour. Tristania is looking forward to getting back on the road and back on stage after this long break from touring, due in large to work on the new album. The last European tour the band had was almost three years back - it's about time they headed back out!

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Hi!

 

Finally, I am happy to tell you that the new album is finished recorded, and the only thing we've got left to do is the mix. The album is scheduled for January 2005. It's entitled “Ashes”, and it will be released on SPV. We feel really good about it, and we can hardly wait for getting it out. It has been recorded in TopRoom Studio, and we have collaborated with Børge Finstad as co-producer on it. Below you can read a studio report that we wrote in June, just a few days after we had returned from our stay in the studio. Hope you'll enjoy it.

 

The artwork for the album close to finished, and soon we will put some of it on the site. The design is brilliantly done this time by Mr. Christian Ruud.

 

Now we are preparing for the European tour that we will do together with Therion and Trail of Tears in October-November (tourdates) .It will be great to go out on the road again, and present you some of the new material. A couple of weeks ago, we did our first show after a long break from touring while we have worked on the new album – on the M'era Luna festival in Hildesheim, Germany (setlist) . It was a good concert, and the audience also seemed to enjoy the 2 new songs we did. It was great for us to finally begin with the live part again. The upcoming tour will be quite long, I believe 30 shows in 31 days. We're looking forward to it!

 

 

 

Studio Report

Stavanger, June 2004

 

Hi everyone!

 

About time that we dropped you a few lines to tell you what's been going on in the Tristania camp.

 

The last 9 weeks we have spent in Grindvoll, Hadeland and TopRoom Studio. There we have recorded what will be our next album. With the exception of some of Østen's vocals, we are finished with the album. Unfortunately, he lost his voice in the end of our period in TopRoom, and we had to wait with his last vocal parts. The good news is that his voice is back, and we will finish the rest of the vocals quite soon. After that we will go back to TopRoom and mix the album with co-producer Børge Finstad.

 

Before we go into details on the album, allow me to apologize for that we haven't kept you updated during the studio sessions. Our intention was to write a few studio reports and put them on the site as the weeks in studio went by. Partly because our access to the internet was close to none while we were in studio (we lived in a flat at a camping ground…), and partly because we were busy working on the album day and night, this didn't happen. Anyway, now we are glad to finally be able to give you a detailed update.

 

While writing you these words now it has been 4-5 days since we finished in TopRoom Studio, and it is a great relief to get some distance to the freshly recorded material. I think we almost had forgot how exhausting a Tristania studio period can be. Even though we never have entered studio as well prepared as this time, it was probably the toughest recording sessions we have ever had. Like on our former albums, a lot of the material has been created in studio. We like to try out different solutions and find out what works best. It has been a fantastic process to see the songs develop and take form, but this way of working also means a lot of work in studio, and way too few hours of sleep. It is a relief to feel that things slowly are getting back to normal. It has been strange 9 weeks. It feels like living and working in a bubble, the outside world becomes more distant with each day…

 

Time to say something about what's most important: the album. We are very pleased with it, and we feel that both the songs and the sound is our best effort so far. The title of the album will be “Ashes”, and it is scheduled for January. We can't wait to get this one out and show you what we have been up to the last couple of years.

 

We have recorded more material than the songs that will be on the album, and right now we are deciding which tracks that will work best together on the album. The new songs are pretty long, so I guess we will end up with 7 or 8 tracks on the album.

 

After having recorded 3 albums in Sound Suite Studio, we felt that it was time for a change. We chose TopRoom Studio and collaborator Børge Finstad because we believed that this would give us a sound that suited our new songs. We're delightful to see now that it was the right thing to do. I think that the sound fits perfectly to the development in our music. As on the other albums, we have also this time made an album that represents something new, the next step. We are happy with the fact that we also this time have done a different album, and at the same time maintained the Tristania sound.

 

If I should summarize the forthcoming album with three words, it would be heavy, organic and dynamic. Especially the drums and guitars sound really powerful and organic. We wanted to strip the whole thing down a little this time. We have skipped the “unnecessary” elements, and focused on the important ones. This turned out to be a wise thing to do. The punch and the heaviness of the new songs represent something we've never done before.

 

We used the two first weeks on drum sessions with Kenneth. The drum sound is as mentioned one of the main improvements on this album, and Børge Finstad proved that drum sound really is one of his main qualities. As soon as we had set the drum sound for the different songs Kenneth did the actual recordings quite fast. All the drums on the album are acoustic, and it turned out very heavy.

 

After the drum takes, we spent the next 3 weeks on the skeleton of the songs: bass, rhythm guitars and the main synth parts. The guitar sounds heavier than ever, and this suits the riffs very well. We spent more time on the guitars than before this time, and it paid off. This album is without doubt our most guitar- based album.

 

After having the framework of the songs ready, we continued with the vocals. First Vibeke and Østen, and finally Kjetil. In my opinion both Vibeke and Østen did their best album appearances so far with this one. Both of them are showing new sides of their voices, and both sound more diverse. For Kjetil this was his first album appearance, and he did his job extremely well.

 

I think we managed to balance the 3 different voices well, and I would guess that each of them roughly are doing one third of the vocals.

 

During the weeks with vocal recordings, we also recorded additional guitars, more synth and for the first time we included cello. We were lucky to have Hans Josef Groh to do the cello parts. He did an excellent job, but that didn't surprise us much – as he has appeared on a lot of metal releases – like “Le Masquerade Infernale” by Arcturus.

 

 

 

Some words about 7 of the new songs, and all of them will most likely be on the album:

 

 

 

The Gate

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Østen)

 

After an intro with piano and cello this one turns really heavy. A guitar based metal track that includes vocals from both Kjetil, Østen and Vibeke. The song is almost 7 minutes long and we're sort of building the whole thing up all through the song. It becomes more and mosre heavy and ends with a quite bombastic outro as a climax. Heavy guitars combined with some really great piano passages that Einar created.

 

 

 

Cure

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Østen)

 

The ballad of the album. This was one of the first songs we had ready for this album. It contains only Vibeke's voice, and on this one Vibeke was very much involved in making the vocal melodies. Østen did a great job with the words on this one. The song is quite calm, but ends with a quite powerful outro. A lot of guitar tracks on this one, both electric and acoustic. Piano is also an important element on this song.

 

 

 

Libre

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Kjartan Hermansen)

 

One of my personal favorites on the album. A very catchy metal tune. Kjetil and Vibeke are doing most of the vocals. The shortest track on the album, the only one under 5 minutes. Both the guitars and Vibeke's vocals do have an Arabic sound. Lyrics written by Kjartan Hermansen, the webmaster of tristania.com – a guy with many different talents. I think his lyrics on this one fits perfectly to the aggressiveness in the music. This is one of the tracks from the album that we definitely will include in out future live sets. “Libre” is one of the most aggressive songs that will be on the album.

 

 

 

The Wretched

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Anders)

 

This one is also a guitar based metal track. I really like the atmosphere of this one. Makes me think of a soundtrack for a David Lynch movie. Spooky stuff, both musically and lyric-wise. Kjetil is doing the majority of the vocals on this one, but Vibeke and Østen also appear. All three of them are actually singing together on the choruses; a pretty powerful choir with Kjetil's death vocals on top. Probably one of the most technically complex songs on the album. And very heavy.

 

 

 

Equilibrium

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Østen)

 

Not a ballad, not a metal opus – something in between I guess. This one also one of the first songs that were ready for the album. The song is a duet between Østen & Vibeke. A lot of acoustic guitars on this one, and a very doomy part. Østen came up with some really nice vocal lines on this track.

 

 

 

Untitled

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Einar)

 

This is another one of my personal favorites. We finished the arrangement on it in studio, actually the last song we finished. Starts really heavy with powerful guitars and Kjetil's voice. The most diverse song on the album, and we are very happy with the arrangement of the song. It reminds me of one of the songs that me and Einar wrote together for the 2 nd album; “Opus Relinque”. It varies a lot in intensity and mood, and I think this is one of those songs you never become tired of listening to. Østen and Vibeke are singing a lot together on this one. Einar wrote the lyrics, and right now he is probably sitting outside his tent on the Roskilde Festival considering what to name it (yeah, right!). This one also contains cello and acoustic guitars, and Einar came up with a calm very nice synth part in the middle of the song that includes Vibeke's voice. This one is almost 8 minutes long.

 

 

 

Shadowman

(Music: Anders & Einar, Lyrics: Østen)

 

Østen is doing the main vocals on this one, but Vibeke is also singing. A quite intense rock song. Most of the vocals are a result of Østen improvising. He did a brilliant piece of work with this one. Another cool thing is that Østen is showing other specters of his voice, sides of his vocals that will be new for the Tristania fans. The most intense vocals he has ever done with Tristania. The song is pretty melodic and heavy in a catchy way.

 

 

 

In addition to these 7 tracks, we have recorded 4-5 other songs. Some of them are more or less finished – and some are only partly recorded. We will go back to TopRoom Studio and complete the work with the songs when our time schedule allows it. We also already have ideas for more new stuff, and maybe we will do recording sessions again already during the first half 2005. It depends on the tour schedule during the next months.

 

We really can't wait to get this album out now, as it's been nearly 3 years since we released “World of Glass”. Also, it will be great to present the new songs live. The European tour we will do together with Therion will be the longest lasting one we've ever have done. For sure it will be hard work, but also great fun. It's been a while since our last European tour, so it surely is about time! We're also very happy with the fact that we will get to play in several countries which we've never visited before, such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and England.

 

 

 

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