TRISTANIA Joined By Former OCTAVIA SPERATI Guitarist

Norway's TRISTANIA have issued the following update:

"We are very happy to announce that Gyri Losnegård has joined the ranks of TRISTANIA as a permanent member! It was never a hard decision to ask her to get on board. We quickly got to know her as a hard-working, talented guitar player, skilled songwriter/lyricist, and, most of all, an easy-going, loving person, that fit straight in the family from day one! Please give her a warm welcome!"

Gyri commented: "Two years ago, in August 2007, I met this very cool girl from Sardinia at Wacken Open Air in Germany. We quickly connected and ended up hanging out for the rest of the festival. She told me she was going to Norway in a couple of weeks to audition for a band, and for my part there was no surprise when only a few weeks later, Mariangela announced that she was assigned as the new singer of TRISTANIA.

"A year passed. After eight years of great adventures, my band OCTAVIA SPERATI decided to put band activities aside. I told Mariangela, and incidentally it turned out that her band was short of a guitar player at the time. She asked me to get in touch with the guys, and so I did. February 2009 I met with the band to rehearse for the first time, and at the end of that weekend I was welcomed into TRISTANIA as a live guitarist.

"I want to thank the guys for accepting me as a band member so quickly. So far in my musical career I had only played in one other band; a band that started out, and always kept being, a project between friends. You can't imagine how relieved I was to find that behind the name TRISTANIA was a bunch of very, very great people. I'm probably not the most outgoing of persons, but these guys are really easy to get along with and to become fond of, and each and every one already feels like family. I was asked to join in permanently after my first two gigs with TRISTANIA in June, and I find it a privilege to be playing with this band. I hope I will stand up to the task of being the second guitar player of TRISTANIA.

"Glimpsing into the future, I see good things happening for the band. The new material is great, it is groovy, energic and a pleasure to play live. I've done a few more gigs with TRISTANIA now, met some of the fans and seen their reactions to the new material, and I'm excited. I can't wait to get out and play again and meet even more of the people who are the reason we want to keep doing this.

"I know there's been a lot of changes to the band lately and that people, especially the fans, are not sure what comes next. But I'm confident that we will be given a fair chance, and that we will live up to your standards and deliver — in every way.

TRISTANIA recently played a couple of shows with guest vocalist Kjetil Nordhus (ex-GREEN CARNATION, TRAIL OF TEARS) filling in for Østen Bergøy, including this year's Wacken Open Air festival, which was held July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany

TRISTANIA is continuing to write material for the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2007's "Illumination". Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Patriot Games", "Year of the Rat", "The Emerald Piper" and "Sirens".

Professionally filmed video footage of TRISTANIA performing the song "The Emerald Piper" at this year's Wacken Open Air festival can be viewed below.

Commented Bergøy: "In my best moments, I manage to lift the songs and add flavor and depth and meaning. In my worst moments, the lyrics are shite and needs rewriting and rethinking. I am quite moody when I do this kind of work, and I complain a lot. Besides the never-irrelevant themes of fucked up relationships, and the feeling that existence lacks meaning, I have tried to imagine myself at another place — a more extreme spot in the world — and tried to understand and recreate what people such places must be going through. I am fascinated by extremism, madness and chaos. I don't think I want to be more specific than that at this point."

TRISTANIA in 2007 announced the addition of Italian singer Mariangela "Mary" Demurtas to the group's ranks.

The band's latest album, "Illumination", was released in January 2007 via SPV. The CD was recorded at Woodhouse Studios in Hagen, Germany with producer Waldemar Sorychta (LACUNA COIL, TIAMAT, GRIP INC.).

"The Emerald Piper" performance (Wacken Open Air) featuring Gyri Losnegård: