The Tryst Haunt was an event to sort of "introduce" the
L'Animaux Tryst
label's stable of artists to Portland. The event took place on May 26, 2007 at
the Space Gallery in Portland, ME. The
L'Animaux Tryst
label is a CDR (mostly) label that showcases a varied bunch of sounds, from free
folk to drone, from psychedelic to noise. So, the Tryst Haunt allowed us
few lucky ones the chance to see a bunch of the bands that were on the early
L'Animaux Tryst
releases.
First up was Cursillistas.
Cursillistas is a project of
Matt LaJoie, the founder of
L'Animaux Tryst,
where he plays solo acoustic guitar, augmented by many delays and effects. His
was a meditative set that was quite transporting. I'd almost consider his music
folk, but it's got an 'edge' that expands the genre nicely. Check out the
YouTube video from the show below.
Cursillistas
Next, was Bird Microphone,
the project of Alyce Ornella. Hers was a very experimental set that was VERY
unique. It honestly took me a few listens to get (understand) what she's doing,
but I'm now a fan...Check out the video below, and see what you think!
Bird Microphone
White Light was next...I
really like their CDR, and was looking forward to their set, and they didn't
disappoint! Cool and trippy, as the video below will attest to.
White Light
My favorite set of the night was next, the band
Tempera. They only played one
song, but what a piece!!! It started quietly with some chant/singing, and ended
up a multi-drum freak out. I've heard they've scored the movie "Metropolis", and
I hope I can catch them playing this some time. The video below is shortened
from the original 15 minutes or so due to Youtube's 10
minute limit, but I think you'll get the idea.
Tempera
Lightning Strike
Lightning followed next. They rocked pretty well, and I really enjoyed their
set (their CDR on
L'Animaux Tryst
is very good too!). I think they shared a member or two with
White Light, but I may be
wrong (a lot of the bands seemed to share members, and a year later when I'm
writing this review, my memory COULD be wrong). Anyways, check out their video
below, which I think you'll like...
Lightning Strike Lightning
Up next was Barry Burst, a sitar
player whose L'Animaux Tryst
CDR is one of my absolute favorites of the past couple of years. His band
consisted of folks from other
L'Animaux Tryst bands (I don't know if he usually has a band, or put the CDR
out all by his lonesome). The first track (shown below) was my favorite of the
two he played, and I hope you like it.
Barry Burst
Brown Bird pulled out all stops and played an EXCELLENT set next...folk with a
good experimental edge to it. I don't think they're on the
L'Animaux Tryst
roster of bands, but I'm really glad they played. Check out the first track of
their set below.
Brown Bird
And finally, Bad Bus.
Bad Bus is made up of members
of MANY of the bands above (Cursillistas,
Bird Microphone,
White Light & more), and
put on QUITE a bit of noise (definitely the noisiest set of the night).
Definitely improvisation, but it worked fine, and the audience and band were all
having a blast. Below is an excerpt from their set.
Bad Bus
So that was it!!! A really interesting night from another great Portland Maine
label (the other of course being Time Lag Records). Thanks to all the bands who
played their hearts out...It was extremely cool to check you all out.
If you're curious about L'Animaux Tryst recordings, check out their site at: http://www.lanimauxtryst.com/home.htm
They've recently been putting out a 45 series of 12 that are REALLY good...and
they're still cranking out the cool CDR's...A VERY cool label!