Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri :: Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close (Black Knoll Editions)

Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close is a brooding and at the same time priceless contemplative effort for entrancing noises, velveting drones and revered guitar phrasings.

Ethereal beauty with an almost immaculate dimension

Two legendary and innovative sound artists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Abul Mogard join force to produce one remarkable micro-noise ambient release. This album is published by Black Knoll (owned by R.A.Irisarri) and crafted in vinyl format. Rafael Anton Irisarri is one of the most reliable and notorious figures of modern days ambient electronica with an incredible ability to blend textures and sinuous motifs to express a sense of emotional grandeur and heartfelt dramaturgy. His albums have notably been signed on Room40, Umor Rex, and others. His work counts a handful of collaborations with artists of various musical horizons and stylistic paths. Abul Mogard is another distinguished sound artist producing soundscapes of deep introspective reflection and journeying to the confines. His usual sound signature mixes abrasive, shifting, and mutating drone sequences with fractured consonant melodies, mostly with sorrowful and eerie inclinations to reach a state of sensory communion. His numerous albums can be found on Ecstatic Records and also his sumptuous collaborative release with KMRU for VAKNAAR.

If the two lengthy pieces start in a slowly and subtly moving ambient register, both carry on an emotional crescendo based on multilayered pads with a cascade of drone guitar vibes filled with dreary and tearful, if not elegiac, moments. Those pieces end up in one overwhelming and intoxicating ethereal beauty with an almost immaculate dimension, embracing all inner ghosts and soul upwarding. If you believe in the transcendent nature and spiritual power of music, with a marriage of the divine and the human, you will be seduced by this album. 

Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close is a brooding and at the same time priceless contemplative effort for entrancing noises, velveting drones and revered guitar phrasings. If you like slowly and elegant evolving minimal ambient then intense, massive, and soul crushing guitar noise litanies, this album is for you. A strong and cohesive new release which can easily compete for best album of the year. Warmly recommended for fans of those two artists but also Alessandro Cortini, Tape Loop Orchestra, and TROUM (at their most soothing moments). Essential.

Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close is available on Black Knoll Editions. [Bandcamp | Anost]