Secede – Tryshasla

needs a cd reissue, preferably with the original artwork/inserts and mastering

Dreamy, distant, warm, magical, windy. One of the best releases!

Some people seem to be frustrated to not understand this beauty and feel the need to claim it here. Well, all in all, I understand it. It's great to have a balance in positivity and negativity.

The problem is, what these people call "pop" music is actually "crafted with the heart" music , where there is absolutely zero fake attitude, and where "well, okay, I have to create something new, odd and pretentious, there will always be some elitists to call it genius" does not exist.

Unfortunately, the problem with Tryshasla (which is absolutely not a problem for me) is that it aged weird for some people, not because of its sound design (it's timeless), but because the 2010s do not look like the 2000s at all. I think it's a way too soft, gentle and soap-scent music for our current era, fed with more and more "badass" attitudes and entertainments.

Tryshasla, indeed, is safe like home and pure like an angel. It reflects the positivity, the romance and the lightful vibe of a lot of ideas from the 2000s. Tryshasla is for people who still can feel the beauty of naive moods and melodies, for people who did not trade their candid heart for a more pretentious deepness. With this journey, there's no space either for the abstract cosmos, noodling darkness and indifferent stars that too much ambiant albums love to explore (and for some, it's just because of a lack of personality and also a lack of skills to create some figurativ audio paintings).

Tryshasla is not a technical piece (just like Kettel, Secede is not a "technician", he is an artist before all). But talking about its mood, about its artistical value, it's for sure absolutely unique. Secede paints with sounds. Secede writes tales with music notes. And in contrary to some ambiant artists who are the discount Pollocks of music, Secede is the Waterhouse of ambiant, creating majestuous, romantic and realistic/fantasy pieces at the same time. And I think that's the reason why for a lot of people who love ambiant, Tryshasla is the best creation they have ever heard, because with Secede, you find a way out to this blank abstraction delivered by too many productions of this genre.

Well, I'm here defending this lovely creation, but guess what, it's not even my favourite one from Secede. I prefer above all his ghost album "Silent Flower Observers" which is his ultimate work in my opinion (Lennard, why did you cancel this masterpiece?). But one thing is for sure though : Tryshasla is humble deepness for your heart before being deepness for your mind, and that's what some people seem to not understand here.

It´s pop music, don´t think this is meant to be deep or original in any way. It aims to please, but for some it falls flat. Feels like filters, tricks and form over function, emotion in this case. Nothing new there, not even when it came out.

Overrated, plain bad album in my books. This album completely lacks depth and the mesmerizing aspect of ambient. Instead, it's like the ambient arrangement of children's songs from Disney movie. This album is packed with naive, irritating tinkling melodies and excessive perkiness, frosted with gimmicky ambiance. I expected introspective experience from this album, but couldn't help but cringe couple songs after. Switched to Helios first album, and it was like going to heaven.

Absurdly timeless. Basically the best ambient + excursion one will probably hear in their lifetime. Yup, it's that good.

The very finest of magical ambient.

Since it was released a decade ago I just keep coming back to this unique album year after year and each time I listen to it I get enchanted and carried away into the wonderful world of Tryshasla. Surprising details, structures and elements keep coming up even after numerous plays, this album is overflowing with atmosphere and it never gets boring, this is truly a masterpiece.

Lame! And here’s why-

Usually when I hear something like this my immediate thought is ‘I don’t get it’ or ‘I must be missing something’ – not the case here, I get it - it’s just dumb. I can’t seem to find any review for this album that doesn’t refer to it as ‘sonic beauty’ or whatever, but certainly it isn’t the same brand of sophisticated beauty one might hear from a Janek Schaefer or William Basinski, rather the colourful, cartoony brand one might associate with Alice in Wonderland or somesuch prepubescent inanity, typical of the Sending Orbs catalogue. The songs are ok I guess, but that’s all they are, certainly not worth the ridiculous price tag you’ll find attached trying to add this one to your collection these days, though if you do end up dishing out the cash, as I did, your disappointment won’t stem from your empty wallet.

Onto the songs themselves then; the album as a whole, is an incoherent mishmash of 2, or perhaps 3 types of songs; the first of which is mainly built around a single melodic motif which plays for the duration of the track; see Foliage Pathway and Shrine; incidentally, these are perhaps the best tracks on the album if only for their cohesiveness. The second bears similarities to the first but is far more directionless – layer upon layer of seemingly random and incompatible (and again, cartoony) ambient quasi-melodies and found-sounds; the artist here, and more broadly, throughout the album, is seemingly exhibiting a ‘more = more’ philosophy which is entirely short-sighted and infantile; see Realms of Sanda, Kingdom of Hearts - unremarkable and, moreover, forgettable songs which unfortunately, eat up the majority of Tryshasla’s playtime. This, to me, only serves to mask the artist’s obvious lack of skill and experience in songwriting by means of muddy clouds of awkward sound.

The third is some manner of kick-snare Boards of Canada clonage, but lacking the magic, depth and third-eye vision of said band. The ‘IDM’ tag often used to refer to these tracks, and indeed this entire album, if you ask me, is entirely misleading – there’s nothing IDM about this, unless your idea of said genre is a series of ordinary and predictable 4/4 beats alongside some lame-arsed, equally ordinary and predictable indie-rock type chord progressions. Always a point of heated debate as we all know – what is IDM? – well whatever it is, this disc aint got it.

Overall the album screams of hasty songwriting, half-baked musical promises but never a payoff. The album, and perhaps also the artist, lack ambition, creativity, the balls to really give you something that sais FUCK YOU to whatever you think you know about music - and as a result, I can’t help but think the album’s near-legendary status is simply the shilling of pimple-faced IDM kiddies the likes of which are, in the far-off galaxy of dub techno, net-drooling in a similar fashion. Tryshasla isn’t a bad album, but I can’t bring myself to recommend this to you. Considering the asking price for this disc and the absurd simplicity of the music therein, there really isn't any reason to choose this one over the many alternatives - grab Legiac’s album ‘Mings Feaner’ to hear this style done correctly.

Fantastic! and here is why:

Firstly the motif of using music as a journey speaks volumes about the composer's/artist's attitude to music and life in general if you appreciate the sentiment, this is the electronic album you've been looking for all these years.

Secondly, as another review says the songs are "organic", had they not been so, the soundscapes would have roughly mimicked the cold, syntheic and often unrelatable music of the british duo Plaid so even though its all "synthesized", its warm and for the lack of a better word, "cozy".

Thirdly, like everything that gets the "masterpiece" label, this too is a genre-defying work. The traditional labels like "Ambient" and "idm" etc still apply but without being disloyal to the core characteristics of these genres Van Der Last introduces little surprises like field recordings and vocal samples in almost every song making it that much more lush, grand, rich and complex.

Finally, accessibility is a virtue that often finds itself in a trade-off with complexity. After all, how can something thats "Experimental" and "Avant Garde" be accessible? This may not be an avant garde piece of music but its certainly accessible and comes off with a genuine generosity of spirit that one is bound to mistake it for something simple. Yet, I'm sure this is not one of those albums that you listen to obsessively for one week and forget all about it, this is the stuff you'll keep coming back to, at least once every year you too will want to make your journey to "Landa".

'Tryshasla' is an album of sonic beauty from beginning to end.
Pure escapism, childlike wonder & effervescent memories. I found this album via a searching the Net for new sounds last year & also being a BIG fan of Sending Orbs' label, now owning Legiac & both Yagya albums. I finally hold this lush audio soundscape in my hands after paying 46 British notes for it (well worth it!!) & so proud I got it at last!

The very beginning sounds of Hospital Requiem, immediately transpose the listener into a sense of realism; Life support machines bleep & hum, whispered voices of a desperate man who wants to return to the mystical world he was in before being revived.

We the listener are (as with Frank the character) whisked away slowly & surely into Foliage Pathway, where melodies play joyously & moments are treasured, where dreams & fond memories are conjured, just beautiful.
The sounds of 'Leraine' kick in which lift your spirits & marks the album's spirit well. Then we're elevated to a mystical wondrous place 'The Realms of Sanda' & from this point you can empathise with Frank why you would not want to leave this place.

I doubt I can really go into every track & review it & give it credit that it rightfully deserves, as it's an example of how to make a journey in sound for an hour.
It's not only the melodies that play well & truly inspirational but the field recordings Secede has developed too that really whisk you from your reality so well. As another reviewer rightfully quoted, Secede must have had some serious inspiration to create this 'masterpiece' of electronica/ambient.
I didn't mention the legendary artwork of Jeroen Advocaat aligning the album's sounds perfectly.

So..In the words of Frank "Let Me Go"