Toronto, ON · darkwave · synth-pop

TR/ST

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Robert Alfons's sepulchral synth-pop — a voice pitched somewhere between seduction and threat, club gloom at its most luxurious.

TR/ST began as Trust, formed in Toronto in January 2010 after Robert Alfons met Maya Postepski, then also of Austra, in late 2009. The pair signed to Sacred Bones Records and released the early singles 'Candy Walls' and 'Bulbform,' the strength of which brought a deal with Arts & Crafts later that year.

The music draws on 1980s synth-pop, industrial and darkwave: heavy analog-sounding synthesizers, insistent drum machines, and Alfons's low, heavily processed vocals, which shift between a breathy croon and something harsher.

The self-titled debut, TRST, appeared in 2012. Postepski left soon after its release to focus on Austra and her solo project Princess Century, leaving Alfons to continue the project alone under the shortened name TR/ST.

Joyland followed in 2014, reaching the top twenty of Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart and producing the singles 'Rescue, Mister,' 'Capitol' and 'Are We Arc?' Alfons also released the standalone track 'Slug' the following year.

The two-part The Destroyer, recorded partly in a farmhouse north of Toronto and partly in Los Angeles, arrived in 2019, preceded by the singles 'Bicep,' 'Destroyer' and 'Gone.' Alfons also collaborated with the singer ionnalee on 'Harvest' and has remixed tracks for Feist, Moby, Zhala and Jonna Lee. A further album, Performance, appeared in 2024.

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darkwavesynth-pop