Tristan Allen
Tristan Allen is a composer and puppeteer based in Brooklyn, NY. Tristan's work employs the narrative power of instrumental music and puppetry to create an imaginary world.
With a background in piano, bass, electronic music, and marionette theater, Tristan applies an experimental mode of storytelling to create rich works of wordless fantasy.
In Osni the Flare, the second chapter of Tristan Allen's mythic trilogy, follows a mortal character's transformation into deity through the discovery of fire. Recorded over four years with toy instruments, ocarinas, music boxes, organs, and wordless vocals, this puppet symphony explores the origins of flame and mortality across four acts. Allen meticulously built each sound—flutes recorded note by note from Balinese Sulings and bird-shaped ocarinas, fire conjured from fingernail clicks on piano keys, melodies sitting in the bass inspired by goth and gamelan. Hour-long jams fed through tape created decaying delays, music boxes were wound slowly and sampled individually, a dying Casio SK-1 with a blown-out speaker layered with harmonium for chordal textures. Like its predecessor Tin Iso and the Dawn, the album opens and closes with piano as a portal into four acts of adventure. Allen invites listeners to remain protagonists in a world that doesn't sound like people playing instruments, but like the work of a fantastical realm itself.
