Interview with TRYST

Jordan & Enhua Bruce are a duo hailing from London, UK and Toudao, China and whilst Jordan is no stranger to production being one half of the Yard One duo and founder of Tact Recordings, his life and now production partner in this new side project marks her production debut with Tryst. A deeply personal endeavour created as a memory of their honeymoon in Japan in 2017, the project features fields recordings taken in Kyoto’s Bamboo Forest of Arashiyama and Kiyomizu-dera Bhuddist temple, and Tokyo’s Akihabara and Shibuya districts, Ueno Park and more.

We sat down with Jordan and Enhua for a quick labchat here in Fiction Lab ahead of their debut EP release. We are also excited to premiere a wonderful "Ueno Falls' track from the upcoming 'Issho' EP which is coming out on May 28th via Apparel Tronic imprint. 

Hey Jordan and Enhua, it’s nice to have you here at Fiction lab! How did the idea of you guys working on music production come together? 
I (Jordan) have been making and releasing music for around a decade now and Nina over the years since we met has developed an interest in production, we finally got round to bringing our plans to fruition with this inaugural project ‘Issho’ under our new Tryst guise.

You told me that this release was made around the field recordings you made at your honey moon in Japan last year. Was the idea of Tryst made before or after the honeymoon?
We both knew that we wanted to make something as a memory of our honeymoon in musical form so it was very much planned beforehand, we picked up a nice field recorder before the trip and throughout our honeymoon started recording in places like the Kiyomizu Dera temple, bamboo forest of Arashiyama and surrounding mountain landscapes in Kyoto, Ueno Park, Akihabara, on the underground system and other places in Tokyo.

Who is doing what in process of making tracks for Tryst? 
I (Jordan) spent a lot of the time focusing on the sound design and mixing of the compsitions as i have a long standing background in this, Nina focused on taking the majority of the field recordings throughout our trip and also played the majority of the chord progressions and melodic elements of the project.

Do you guys play any instruments? 
Nina previously played the accordion so has a fundamental knowledge of chords and i’m much more a programmer, i don’t have much knowledge in the way of playing and reading music but an ability to program drum machines and create soundscapes through engineering techniques so the pairing of the two has worked perfectly here and the situation is similar in Yard One, Larry has studied Piano for many years, i find this dynamic helps to make tracks i’m happy to release.

What is your DAW of choice and why? 
Logic X, i’ve been a die hard fan of Logic since day one and will probably never change, the sound quality is incredible although the majority of stuff is done out of the box on a mixing desk with analogue gear, i just use the DAW for mixing and effects.

What is your favorite piece (instrument) in your studio? 
The Electron Octratrack is at the core of most of our work, an incredible sampler which i probably only use about 20% of it’s capabilities and already it’s more exciting to jam on than anything else i’ve ever used, but also the Nord Lead 1 is integral.

You guys became proud parents recently, congrats!! How does parenting affect your usual routine in studio? 
At the moment the production has taken a back seat to allow us to focus on our newborn daughter and make sure she has our undivided attention, although we have occasional hours here and there to work on stuff gradually.

When is your usual ‘studio time’ ? 
Generally with my other project, Yard One, we book in weekends since we’re based in different parts of the UK, those weekends are pretty much non stop jams and we cut away at all the recordings to find bits we love and  then finish them over the following weeks from there. Tryst will continue to be based around field recordings so were making more this year and new stuff will be out later in 2018.

Do you plan on performing live together? 
This is a long term goal but at present we’re happy just releasing our music since we have a lot of other things keeping us busy right now, i’d only want to perform live if we could do it right.

What music did you guys grow up on? 
Minimal was really the thing that got me hooked on electronic music, so early releases from Luciano, Ricardo Villalobos, Loco Dice, Martin Buttrich and the original Circo Loco / Monza Ibiza style is where i really got into it. This has very much stuck and is probably at the core of Yard One, whilst Tryst focuses on the more abstract, ambient and left field sounds which i’ve grown to love as i’ve got older.

What is your favorite club in London and why? 
Hard to say, fabric was a club i grew up clubbing in but it’s had some tough times this past year or so, although i’ll always respect it as an institution. So many of the clubs and parties i grew up going to are now unfortunately no more as the gentrification and law changes of London have grown we’ve lost incredible nightclubs like The Key, The Cross, Canvas, The End, Dance Tunnel and parties like lo*kee which were by far some of my favourite events in the city. There’s obviously still good stuff happening here but things have slowed down for me since getting married and having a daughter so i’m a lot more selective with what i want to go out and listen to and also where i go to hear new stuff.

 What is your favorite album in 2018 so far? 
Mini album but Albrecht La’Brooy’s ‘Tidal River’ on Apollo/R&S, these guys are making some of the most incredible music for me right now.

What is a perfect setting for listening Tryst? 
An early morning summer drive or a late night at home in a low lit room with a bottle of wine.

How does the future look for Tryst, are you guys planning on nurturing the Tryst style?
We’ll be continuing to release material on an Ambient/Dub Techno tip, always featuring field recordings from our travels. The releases will likely be few and far between as this is a personal project for us and we’re in no rush to blast releases out.

Music is often known as a carrier of emotions - transcending times and places to offer the listener a brief glimpse into a moment where the artist, or artists in this case want to share a snippet of their life. Ueno Falls by London duo Tryst does exactly this. Wordless conversations drift in and out of a river, seemingly made of bass and bubbly percussive elements. All of this framed by a wonderful drawn out set of pads which could almost be the wind that glides through the cherry blossoms of Ueno Park.