Rafael Anton Irisarri — The North Bend

Rafael Anton Irisarri is an artist working in the field of what is variously called contemporary classical/home listening/drone/minimalism, what perhaps used to be called ambient music before that term underwent its inevitable diversification. Here on Laurence English’ label Room40 Irisarri weaves five subtle droning ambient pieces full of depth and shade. The opening song sets the blueprint for the album, being constructed from simple repeating motifs of sound, perfectly produced and that are combined to form a panoramic sense of space in the mix. Washes of synthesised sound form the backdrop to low slowly repeating melodies that draw the listener in and create that effect of distorted time that all the best ambient music does. What sets Irisarri’s work apart from the multitude of musicians working in this field is both the thickness of his sound pallet and the deft way in which he injects a tangible feeling of texture to what could very easily end up as indistinguishable blurs.

Like his other project The Sight Below the emphasis is on an approach to repetition and counterpoint that emphasises the dynamic aspect of the mix as a whole rather than focusing on large scale change or movements. Thus the songs Blue Tomorrows, A Great Northern Sign and Traces all have the same combinatory structure, a slow build up where each loop, drone or melody is given time to appear, bed into the whole and then finally the whole thing fades out. This might sound as if it could get boring after the first couple of tracks but the difference in pallet and mood across all the songs means that each retains its own unique character. This is an approach to composition that was unique to ambient music when Eno, Budd and the rest produced those classic works in the 70s. Pre-existing examples could be found in the fields of classical minimalism and some of the early synthesizer gurus like Wendy Carlos. It is an interesting fact that forty years on those tropes and techniques are now returning from the plethora of new age ambient bores to occupy a territory that is again more typical of that classical music of its origins.

Irisarri leaves the best till last on The North Bend with the beautifully restrained Deception Falls. Here the thick texture of drones and washes is thrown wide open during a build up of low bass and vinyl clicks and scrapes. Then emerging like the new days sun over a hazy horizon the simple evocative melody rises from the analogue hum. The ability of music of this kind to affect an emotional response is not a mass phenomena, a friend once said that the problem with music like that of Irisarri is that it doesn’t go anywhere; he was right it doesn’t, what all the best ambient music does is reframe the place you are, sets it against a backdrop of time slowing down, forces you to focus on small subtle details, and if you’re lucky may even make you aware of the sublime in the most ordinary of things.