Trailight mastermind Omer Cordell has checked in with the following update:

"The past little while has been rather interesting in the TraiLight world! I am very honoured to have been asked by my good friend Devin Townsend to lay down some vocal parts for his new album, The Puzzle. I tracked a couple of small multi-layered parts for two tracks and from the little that I heard, this album is going to be very interesting! Keep your ears peeled!

I've known Dev for 20 years now and it's a privilege to be able to collaborate with him on his beautiful musical journey."

Townsend recently issued an update on The Puzzle. Check it out below..

"Over the last 6 months, I’ve been working on two 'scores' that have become a film, two albums, and a graphic novel among other things called The Puzzle. It’s become a massive project with a lot of great people involved. It’s not 'song oriented' and is complicated and abstract. The film has become a tremendous undertaking and we will be streaming it online when it debuts, (along with physical product that is pretty next level).

The concept is meant to describe the last year of chaos and the psychological process it required of us all. The music and visuals act as an analogy for it. The number of people involved (30-40) represents a sort of community amidst it. There’s two albums: Puzzle is chaos and meant to represent the internal dialogue in a fundamentally absurd time, Snuggles is meant to be a beautiful balm that acts as a conclusion and something you can listen to on loop to feel better. Both have a film.

The concept of it all (which I’ll explain in YouTube clips pior to the release) is such that I hope it inspires people- if visually inclined- to make their own graphic novels, films, books etc, using the music as a soundtrack. The Puzzle is written to be my version of a soundtrack to a kind of universal experience we’ve shared, I guess. The movie and books we are producing are meant as examples of the concept... as in: 'everybody’s puzzle is unique, based on the same experiences.'

My work has always really just been a product of a compulsion to reflect what’s going on in my life. If things are chaotic, it’s bound to be chaotic. It’s been a very bizarre work flow, but it’s starting to come together now. Delivery date is March 22, release 2-3 months later.

Finally in August, I will be begin recording my next actual album (with songs) for release early 2022. (Untitled so far) but before that, The Puzzle is something very different and really fascinating I think.

I’ll be back to podcasts and twitch streams when the workload lightens a touch here. Be well and thanks for everything."

Cordell released a new Trailight album, Sophia, in late 2020. It was mixed by former Annihilator frontman Dave Padden. He spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about working with Padden in the studio.

Cordell: "I've been working with Dave since The Primitive Mountain (released in 2015). He knows what I want and what I like. Dave is a phenomenally talented musician beyond the scope of a lot of people's understanding. People don't know how talented Dave is and that's a shame. The other thing about him is that his standards are remarkably high. Me being an absolute hack compared to Dave, having him mix the album was a treat. To make a long story short, he polished the proverbial turd. He really pushed me when I was doing vocals, asking me to sing parts over and teling me I could deliver the lines better. He gave me some pointers as to what I could do to make the vocals a lot better."

"And he's an incredible singer. He could front any band in the world, from a bluegrass band to the most brutal metal band. When I recorded The Primitive Mountain, I had no idea who was going to sing on it. If I had done it, it would have been nothing short of catastrophic. A mutual friend suggested I get Dave to sing on that record and he agreed to it, and I met him on the day we were going to record vocals. He nailed the entire vocal array for The Primitive Mountain in two days. I was recording him thinking 'Who the fuck ARE you and what planet did you come from?' (laughs). So on the record new record, it was his standards couple with his experience that were so important to me. He pushed the album sonically to a level that I did not expect it to go."

Tracklist:

"Eon"
"Aftershock"
"Truth"
"The Three Waves"
"Sleepwalkers"
"Island"
"Up In The Air"
"Dance"
"Birth"