Athens, Georgia-based experimental electronic music artist Tristan McNeil, who records as Nude with Lyre, grew up far away from his chosen genre’s musical epicenters of Chicago, Detroit and New York. Life in the South, along with an education in fine arts and training in classical and jazz music, provides him with a unique POV that informs every blip and bleep on his self-released album, Blood, dropping on December 9.
Blood has an interesting back story: The tracks were produced between 2013-2016 and were intended to serve as the score for a friend’s short film about desolate scenes in Athens and McNeil’s hometown of Augusta, Georgia. The film never came to fruition, but the pieces not only survived but evolved.
An album of ambient soundscapes juxtaposed with an avant-pop sensibility — one in which tranquility and tension co-exist — McNeil’s minimal, cinematic arrangements feature restrained flourishes of sub-bass, washes of synths and his desolate falsetto.
“Purple” is exemplary of McNeil’s dreamy sonic narrative, and we’re pleased to world premiere it. Our advice? Turn off the damn news and leave this transformative masterpiece on repeat until further notice.
Image by Tristan McNeil