Rafael Anton Irisarri - A Fragile Geography (2015) [Hi-Res]

Recorded over the past two years, the record bares the marks of difficult terrains – personal, political, social and cultural. It tips its hat to the complex and unpredictable dynamics of the contemporary world, correlating concerns both macro and micro. Compositionally the music mirrors the tensions of contemporary America, contrasting passages of great beauty and calm with harrowing waves of density and pressure.

"A Fragile Geography" also charts Rafael Anton Irisarri’s personal journey of transience and tumult. His entire studio, audio archives, and possessions were stolen while moving from Seattle to New York, forcing him to rebuild from ground zero. But such a tabula rasa moment also brought with it a chance for renewal, and for reductive experimentation. This experience birthed a range of fresh approaches and ideas, many of which became central to the aesthetic pillars of this record. Empire Systems, the album’s centerpiece, perfectly encapsulates this mood of flux: a rich and harmonically saturated monolith of sound, restless and constantly reaching outwards.

Like much of the album, it is considered, but not excessively laboured; open, but never unruly. "A Fragile Geography" is an exercise in the art of maximal minimalism.

Tracklist:
01. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Displacement
02. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Reprisal
03. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Empire Systems
04. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Hiatus
05. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Persistence
06. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Secretly Wishing for Rain
07. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Unsaid