Rafael Anton I

[fumi]

Blissed-out and highly evocative widescreen layerings from Rafael Anton Irisarri on this beautiful new album for Room 40, an immaculately constructed series of apocalyptically angsty ambient dreamscapes that sound like a gauzy HDR composite of The Caretaker, Talk Talk, William Basinski and Slowdive. If you're into any of the above, this one will push all your buttons at once.

https://boomkat.com/products/solastalgia-f5ee2c45-7898-465d-b005-cc90b9ae425f

Just buy it. Fantastic album.

[Rubin Farr]

Good to see him being so productive.  I wonder if he left The Sight Below moniker behind with his stolen gear?

[taknoj]

Lots of love for this - sounds fantastic. 

[Extralife]

Beautiful album.

[scumtron]

Very good indeed. I haven't really paid much attention to him since his debut, but this is really the music I need right now.

[joshuatxuk]

On 6/21/2019 at 2:22 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Good to see him being so productive.  I wonder if he left The Sight Below moniker behind with his stolen gear?

whoa, wasn't aware of this, could you elaborate?

[Rubin Farr]

5 minutes ago, joshuatxuk said:

whoa, wasn't aware of this, could you elaborate?

This was several years ago:

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/05/26/seattle-musician-and-wife-lose-everything-after-their-moving-truck-is-stolen

[joshuatxuk]

Wow, I had no idea. Dug around I can't even fathom the emotional turmoil of losing not just everything you own but also the archives of your life's work. 

Irisarri is one of the most consistent ambient musicians working, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma, Benoit Piolard, and Grouper are up there as well though (also Willliam Ryan Fritch's instrumental work) though I am a bit more partial to the textures Irisarri has been exploring lately. He was always on my radar (he's very prolific as an audio mastering engineer) but it wasn't until 2017's Shameless Years that I fell in love with his work. It's a really, really labored over sound that mixes tape loops and field recordings and textures with more meticulously composed soundscapes. I have no idea how he does it - but the results are incredible. Clearly his long prolific career and work earlier as Sight Below factors into it. Like fumi said "apocalyptically angsty ambient dreamscapes" - I feel like he bridges the gap between really lo-fi stuff like 1991 or Percival Pembroke and more digital or "shimmery" polished stuff like Fennesz or 0PN.