Transtilla III by Transtilla

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Midira Records about Transtilla III

After releasing Transtilla II back in 2019 we were stunned by the energy the duo could perpetuate on that album and then they presented Transtilla III to us. So we were expecting an ambient album, which follows the track of the predecessor. But Transtilla III is way more than this. The album is a transformation of feelings into music or better said you-can-feel-what-you-hear-music. An ambient drone noise masterpiece.

Side A is the stormy side. The opening track “Ferlern” sets the tone. Guitar sounds are crawling, icy, razor-sharp distortion bursts through a persistent feedback. The following track “Paesens” seems to calm down, but only for a while, before the guitar soundwalls break in like a storm.

Side B is the calm after the storm. “Petre de la Meusse” is an atmospheric cruise, floating on echoing guitars. The closing track “Sketch for Paul”, a tribute to Paul Dokter of the Dutch band The Serenes, shows Transtilla from their minimal side. The bows scratch wildly and make the guitars sound like an orchestra of violins and a choir of voices.

Where the first two albums mainly consisted of dark clouds of sound, build up with two bowed and finger picked guitars, and loops, Transtilla III is a very varied and dynamic record, where the duo moves from a heady restlessness to a subdued calm, from an industrial noise to a classic serenity, from dark to light and back again. It is no coincidence that Transtilla III is the result of an eventful period of love and death for the duo, to which the songs refer directly and indirectly.

Transtilla’s third album is its most diverse, whereby earlier references to groups such as Labradford and Main and the stable of Kranky bands may still apply, but on which the duo also shakes off its ambient feathers.

Transtilla is Anne Chris Bakker and Romke Kleefstra