Tristan: delidomia
track by track breakdown
Tristan is the alter ego of 23-year-old Belgian vocalist, composer and producer, Isolde Van den Bulcke. Considered one of Belgium's rising female artists, Tristan’s new EP delidomia fuses elegant vocal pop with ambient sounds and cosmic jazz and draws on influences such as Björk, Boards of Canada, Arca, Oneothrix Point Never and Wayne Shorter.
Listen to the EP + get to know each track below:
track by track breakdown - by tristan
‘Olso’ is kind of a schizophrenic song in which I let the audience discover opposite universes. I tried to connect a seemingly naive almost classical piece with an EDM drum-solo based piece in a cunning but obvious way. All instruments, like strings and percussion, were recorded in our home studios. ‘Olso’ is the opening track of the EP and I see it as the gate to this imaginary, Alice in Wonderland world I call ‘Delidomia’.
‘Maljaande’ was a song I wrote with the idea of creating a pop song. Lyrically, it is a piece in which I guide you through Tristan’s stream of consciousness. At first glance, people will probably interpret it as a love song, but I tried to put different layers into it so I hope people will look at it or relate to it in different ways. For me, the song is about me being intrigued by how people experience music in different ways and in this seemingly poppy song I’m playing with that theme a little bit, trying to mislead my listeners in some way.
‘Lolaluli’ is the embodiment of true sorrow and pain. I tried to imagine how it is like to lose a beloved one because it is a fear I didn’t have to deal with yet. The man I refer to in the second part is an imaginary character. Musically, this piece came quite effortless and in a very natural way because it really felt like storytelling. Initially, I was thinking about releasing several versions of the song so the parlando in the second part would always vary to make it speak truly, but eventually I felt most comfortable and connected with the final take.
‘Weslanda’ could be considered as Tristan’s “ultimate” nightmare. This song was written at a moment when I felt quite insecure and fragile, and I wanted to translate these feelings into something powerful. It is about jealousy, anger and anxiety, but most of all self-pitying, which I consider to be the least attractive characteristic a person can have.
‘Plankton’ is an interlude to ‘recover’ from this bad trip hallucination to strand onto the last track called ‘Interdimi’. I see this track as the end of my Alice in Wonderland-trip, a sunny island where I can restore my energy and recapitulate on everything. It is the most calming and relaxing song in my opinion with no real message or story. This song was the easiest to record and mix so we managed to complete it in less than 3 days. Everything fell into place very quickly and compared to all the other songs on the EP this process had a therapeutic effect for me in some kind of way.