Why I love Tren: a workout for the mind
The elusive artist trend has had one of the most exciting release schedules I've seen in recent years. Tren operates like an elusive spectre, viewing the electronic music landscape from the periphery, never venturing too far into the centre yet almost soundtracking every person's journey. So far, Tren has had two albums released, The Passages Through Space And Time (2024) and The Rising And Setting Of The Heavenly Bodies (2021), both of which originated as mixes a little bit chopped up in 2 tracks and in that case, it's only a matter of time before the 3rd release Tears of Things, Sorrows of the Universe shows up on Bandcamp.
One of the reasons I like this unreachable artist is because Tren is just there. Tren recaptures that feeling of walking into a record shop and hearing a record for the first time, not knowing who it is, having no way of finding out, and just being forced to enjoy what you have. Trends music is exciting not only because it's fantastic but because that's all there is. There's no face, there's no story. It appears on the internet without any fanfare. With mystery comes intrigue, and with intrigue comes obsession.
Tren plays the system, well, the algorithm. In the internet age, none has been more meteoric than the rise of YouTube. This goes double for electronic music on YouTube. Channels will add moving images to music. Take, for example, the 29novEDITS, who would edit unofficial videos for their posted records. These edits would be unbelievable and add loads of character to the music. The videos would get more and more bizarre as the music got more and more underground. This gave birth to an unofficial community of artists with visual and musical work in collaboration. A prominent channel, Hurfyd, added artwork, again unofficial. Still, these acts added a sense of community as the weird mascot became synonymous with the scene. This explosion of DIY marketing is one of the biggest influences on Tren's releases; Mixes will appear one day as Tren. This harboured a feeling that the music belonged to the people, the fans.
Tren seems to be floating in the half-spaces between a musician DJ, an underground cult icon and a myth. This minimal coverage online, coupled with each YouTube video of one of his mixes needing a description of the artist, the label, or even how they came across the recording. It speaks to the younger me, tickling that curiosity and obsession. This question again: Who are they, where were they, what were they doing?
Stylistically, Tren is aligned with a particular German electronic outfit named Giegling, spearheaded by Traumprinz, the mysterious man of many names, who has almost more aliases as he has albums. Going by the likes of the Prince of Denmark, Dr Sun, DJ Healer and others. Traumprinz's Giegling label epitomes an anti-establishment, anti-celebrity inside joke on the mainstream music industry.
The deep ambient house and techno releases from the Giegling would appear on YouTube sporadically. The music, at times, is perplexing. They managed to capture such rich, raw emotion in a minimal package. Take, for example, the head honcho; under his DJ Metatron alias, he released Loops Of Infinity (A Rave Loveletter), which takes elements of trance and hardcore in a unique direction. DJ Metatron doesn't aim for technical excellence; instead, trying to characterise emotion and memory. Each truck sounds like a hazy recollection of a different song. On the other hand, with his utterly insane Anima Mundi that skates between The Rose tinted glasses, you are looking backwards from the harsh realities under the impressions of the present. But that's the magic.
Tren's output continues to be some of the most beautiful electronic music. Perfectly blending atmosphere, ambience, and beat makes for heart-wrenching and sombre tails. I advise every person to spend some time with Tren's music. Its reflective nature and nostalgic pads will lead you to discover something you may have forgotten about yourself.
