Rafael Anton Irisarri’s ‘A Fragile Geography’ is intrinsically linked to the climate in which it was created, namely one of unsteadiness and transition, and as such, it’s designed as a reflection on the current state of everyday living.
Precisely how readily this translates into the listening experience is questionable, the album’s delicately-spun sonic latticeworks seemingly a world apart from the hectic pace of life in not only the developed world, but on the human plane as a whole. But drawing back and contemplating the bigger picture beyond such solipsism reveals a planetary geography, not of cities and settlements, but millions of years during which land masses have evolved and oceans formed and changed. Transition may to slow in the context of our own brief spans, but against eternity, it is endless and what’s more, continues beneath our feet. As such, these geographies exist in conflict, and rub against one another disharmoniously. And this is the sensation evoked by ‘A Fragile Geography’.
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Soft, supple clouds of sound build, swell and taper. Deep, rich textured bodies of sound rumble on and on, evoking vast deserts as long and as wide and the mind can comprehend, infinite space represented in sonic form. ‘Empire Systems’ is vast, sombre and ominous, yet at the same time a thing of spectacular power and beauty, and encapsulates the sound and feel of the album as a whole.
Rafael Anton Irisarri Online
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