Tribali's Festa Makes International Top 10

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Festa CD cover

Without a doubt, 2012 was a very busy, but very rewarding year for top Maltese band Tribali. Apart from performing several concerts – both locally and abroad - during the summer, they gave a memorable concert in Ta’ Qali to mark the launch of their latest studio album The Traveller. That album however, wasn’t the only Tribali release last year. In fact just before The Traveller was released, the band put out Festa, essentially a compilation of the best Tribali tracks from the band’s earlier albums strategically targeted for the foreign market. The collection of songs served as the perfect introduction to the widely-appealing yet eclectic music that Tribali has consistently delivered over the past 7 years.

Further to the critical acclaim – and a Best Album award at the 2012 Malta Music Awards - that The Traveller has received, Tribali can now add another significant achievement to their burgeoning popularity at an international level, following the announcement that Festa has been named as one of the Top 10 best instrumental albums by leading New Age website (www.newagemusicworld.com). The compilation placed 7th out of hundreds of albums released during 2012 worldwide. In a comment, Howard Keith of Jagged House said “Festa was reviewed by several influential people around the globe, contributing further to Tribali’s success”. Amongst these influential platforms and music journalists were Songlines, who gave the album a 5-star rating, BBC Radio Presenter DJ Ritu, World Beat Canada, several Australian music journalists and festival guru Peter Nobles amongst others.

Festa was released under Albam Records/Jagged House, making it Tribali’s first full-length international release. Until now, the band had only had some of its songs featured on international compilations released on Pistol Records, World Music Network and Dancing Turtle Records. “It was definitely a good start to pave the way for The Traveller” said Tribali frontman Peter Paul. “We’re obviously overjoyed by the feedback and reviews we’ve received”. Primarily a digital release available from various leading international digital music portals, a limited number of physical copies of Festa were distributed locally and abroad.

Meanwhile, the band has announced a change in its line-up, with Nik joining the band after Grigal decided to end his musical journey with Tribali. Work on new material using new sounds and instruments is already underway, in preparation for Tribali’s upcoming live performances, most notably at this year’s Earth Garden festival, now in its 6th edition.

www.tribalimusic.com

Michael Bugeja