Trance to the Sun
Trance To The Sun features the dreamy and compelling sounds of musical landscaper extraordinaire Ashkelon Sain, with a guided tour by sublime vocalist Zoe Alexandra Wakefield. Their extensive, at times bizarre songs cover tremendous ground while retaining a unique darkness and a mysterious ambiance.
Trance To The Sun began in 1989 as Ashkelon's instrumental recording project, yielding in 1990 the self-produced "Volcano", an album far ahead of its time. 1994 saw the signing of the band to TESS RECORDS. With the worldwide release of "Ghost Forest" came the recognition of Zoe Wakefield as a profoundly inspiring new voice in the ambient music realm, being hailed even as the "New Queen of the Twilight" by the Italian music press.
Fresh from the recording studio with a wealth of new material, Trance To The Sun toured the U.S. in support of their second CD entitled "Bloom Flowers, Bloom!" The ten new album tracks and a handful of compilation outtakes that year demonstrated a major leap in the group's ability to chillingly and understatedly convey their haunting aesthetic.
"Bloom" was followed quickly by the landmark "Venomous Eve" album the same year on A.Sain's new homespun label Ambulancia. "Venomous" featured the contributions of two then-new members, Lucian S. Donato on synthesizers and Anna Schott on violin, and drew critical acclaim across the board for it's "Knight-like stealth and elegance"(alternative press). All in all, it was a remarkable output of music and performance for just two short years.
The rapid fire pace began to exact it's toll however, and after a grueling U.S. tour in 1996 as openers for Scotland's legendary punk band Cindytalk, Zoe Wakefield departed suddenly from Trance to the Sun and from music making altogether. Ashkelon carried on in spite of this (perhaps he'd begun to lose it himself) by recording the mini-album "Delirious" which features the frenetic vocals of Dawn Wagner (scarlet slipping). With "Delirious" the music took a sharp left turn, exploring heavier territories and faster paced songs. A short tour and a new live lineup featuring Ashe Ruppe on bass and Mark Blewett on drums showed promise, but just seven months later A.Sain was forced to find yet another new vocalist.
Fortuitously, this time he chose Ingrid Blue.
Ingrid was introduced to a somewhat skeptical fanbase with the stunning compilation CD "Azalean Sea" which featured five new tracks, and eight other unreleased gems recorded over the previous three years. "Azalean Sea" was also released on the Ambulancia label, and it was at this point that longtime promoter and band advocate Patrick Ogl (Thanatos) invited Trance to the Sun to join the roster of his newly founded Precipice Recordings.
But prior to finishing an album for their new label, the band undertook their most ambitious tour of U.S. to date, covering 28 cities and performing to packed halls with co-headliners Faith & Disease.
Then, in 1999, Precipice released for Trance To The Sun what has been seen by some as being their masterpiece album, "Urchin Tear Soda". Sonically and musically, the album reached beyond anything A.Sain had done prior to that point, with immensely sophisticated textures and arrangements laying the foundation for Ingrid's sublime vocals and highly detailed, crystal clear lyrics.
Another short tour of the U.S. followed in the summer of 2000, this time seeing the band headline the Convergence VI festival in Seattle. But the year was spent primarily in the studio with A.Sain and I.Blue writing and recording what was ultimately to become the band's swan song: "Atrocious Virgin". The beautifully packaged "Virgin" was released on Precipice Recordings in 2001. The chilling melodies, exquisite lyrics and tremendous orchestration found therein form an epic conclusion to the archives and annals of this storied American music group.
Ashkelon is now back with his old Blade Fetish bandmate mlinder(Mark Linder), in the band Submarine Fleet in Portland, OR. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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