Rafael Anton Irisarri - Peripeteia
by Maarten Schiethart
published: 13 / 7 / 2020

Label:
Dais
Format: LP
intro
Impressive vinyl and download only album by influential Seattle composer Rafael Anton Irisarri
Available on vinyl and as a download, 'Peripeteia' is best described by the title of its fourth track, 'Arduous Clarity'. Ghostly space travel acoustics intertwined with comfort zone electronica offers little room to train one's brain cells. What the album instead does is to offer to be your rather wonderful companion during these surreal times. 'Peripeteia' with its calm composure comforts rather than evokes. It is like you have got a bottle of Chinon Blanc when you thought you'd ordered a Champagne. It is still excellent, yet without the baffling buzz. Rafael Anton Irisarri most likely recorded 'Peripeteia' unaware that Covid 19 lay just ahead. Perhaps only vaguely showing such ambivalence, his album nevertheless almost perfectly brings a quasi Aristotelian message; the presentiment by an actor to a change in stances. 'Peripety', as in the English language 'Peripeteia' translates as, is his second album of 2020 already. Even if Irisarri was able to use the Corona Lockdown to the benefit of this album, his music has often before hinted at the need to switch the perspective. On 'Mellified' Rafael Anton Irisarri blends thumping tension with a sense of smoothing soothness. Together with 'Arduous Clarity' the album makes a round trip. Inspired by drone muzak and music, new age composition, space waves and recycled early 20th Century music - Claude Debussy and Erik Satie are mentioned as an influence -'Peripeteia' stands its own ground. I prefer to consider 'Peripeteia' as a 21st Century adaption of the experimentalism which we desperately need now. I regret that Rafael Anton Irisarri hasn't taken this as an opportunity to be extreme and confrontational. Evidently a certain beauty lies in the tame and lame.
Track Listing:-
1 I Still Have the Sun to Cast a Light2 Between Negative Voids
3 Mellified
4 Arduous Clarity
5 Refuge/Refuse
6 Yearn
7 Fright and Control
8 Vanishing Points
9 Peripeteia (Continuous Mix)
most viewed articles
current edition
Pennyblackmusic - Writers and Photographers' Albums of the Year 2024Man From Delmonte - Interview
Clive Langer - Interview
Pennyblackmusic - Book of the Year Award 2024
Peter Perrett - In Dreams Begin Responsibilities Interview Part One
Johnnie Johnstone - Interview
Marianne Faithfull - Reflections
Laura Nyro - Profile
Johny Brown - Corpse Flower
Vinyl Stories - Vinyl 2024
most viewed reviews
current edition
Ringo Starr - Look UpDorie Jackson - Stupid Says Run
Pixie Lott - Encino
Dusty Springfield - The BBC Sessions
Beabadoobee - This is How The World Moves
Joan Armatrading - How Did This Happen and What Does It Mean?
Unthanks - In Winter
Oïmiakon - Comptoir Des Vanites
Emily Burns - Die Happy
Rosie Lowe - Lover, Other
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart