December 09, 2024

Rafael Anton Irisarri: FAÇADISMS

photo: Molly Smith

It took musician and mastering engineer Rafael Anton Irisarri three years to finish his FAÇADISMS album, recording bits and pieces as he traversed the globe. Making stops in Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Nairobi, New York, and Oxford, his vision of a collection of drones about putting on a false image in order to look better came together. Has the American Dream become a nightmare? Do the poor have to live with the reality that the people in power can get away with telling them that is now time to "Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom?"

Irisarri's smart use of repetition is both beautiful and relentless. With a good ear and years of experience, he knows how sound works and that the tiniest shift in rhythm and volume can lead to a whole new perspective, provided that the listener is willing and able to go for an immersive, undisturbed experience.

His compositions unveil themselves slowly, pulling away the curtain to show some unpleasant truths. All this left is longing for halcyon days - The Only Things that Belong to Us are Memories which in hindsight were not so bad at all. A glimmer of hope comes to the fore in the closing track Red Moon Tide, wherein ambient musician Joseph Kamaru (KMRU) joins him for a trip through the night, as if they are gazing at the sky for a sign that better times are ahead.

Rafael Anton Irisarri: FAÇADISMS

FAÇADISMS is released via Black Knoll Editions (vinyl, digital). Buy it from his website.

Tracks:
  1. Broken Intensification
  2. Little Grace is Abundance
  3. Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom
  4. Hollow
  5. The Only Things that Belong to Us are Memories
  6. Forever Ago is Now
  7. Dispersion of Belief
  8. Red Moon Tide (ft. KMRU)

Rafael Anton Irisarri: electric guitars, effects and treatments, field recordings, Max, and synthesizers
James Brown: strategies (against conformity)
Hannah Elizabeth Cox: vocals on “Control Your Soul’s Desire for Freedom”
T. R Jordan: string arrangements and sequencing on “Forever Ago is Now”
Julia Kent: cello on “Control Your Soul’s Desire for Freedom”
KMRU: field recordings, Lyra 8 on “Red Moon Tide”
Yamila: vocals on “Red Moon Tide”

» irisarri.org

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