CASS / RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI. El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente

Rafael Anton Irisarri
El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente
CASSETTE + DIGITAL
Release September 2018
United States

Rafael Anton Irisarri continues his series of post-minimalist releases with his third for Umor Rex: El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente. Although composed as an ode to a train journey through Spain he took many years ago, the music sonically picks up where his previous album, Sirimiri, left off. Irisarri focuses on unfolding sonic cycles throughout these four shorter pieces, basing much of this enveloping breadth on looped sounds and distant pulses. However, the sound remains in a state of constant movement and continuous evolution, evoking the nighttime train that inspired the music, not to mention its load of outcasts and travelers. Irisarri's ability as a manipulator of minimalist sound inputs is at its height here, lending even shorter pieces like "El Espectro Electromagnético" a slowly growing dramaticism. The phantasmagoria of "Un Saltador" was even composed as a departure for him, playing with synthesizers and pedals in a "modular" way, letting an experiment unfold with minimal interaction.

Inspired by musical storytellers like Lee Hazelwood, Lou Reed, or Leonard Cohen, his music is transforming into something closer to narrative, "telling stories without words," as he describes it; "lyrical without lyrics." His music has not sounded as hopeful as it does on El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente in quite some time. The outward desperation of Los Años Sin Vergüenza from 2017 and the introverted sadness of Sirimiri have been usurped by a dreamy anecdotalism. As with Sirimiri, it is Irisarri's intention for the songs of El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente to play out like a long loop, and thus we include again an additional track comprising the full 22-minute loop.

Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio (New York). Winter 2018. Illustration by Daniel Castrejón, Photos by Diego Berruecos.

TRACKLIST / 45 min

01. Transeúntes
02. Un Saltador
03. El Espectro Electromagnético
04. La Chica de Valladolid

Umor Rex album page

UMOR REX is a window with a unique vision towards experimental music. It is a label worth discovering through the ear, both for electronic music lovers and for those curious to explore new forms of artistic expression.

Founded in 2006 in Mexico City, UMOR REX is an independent record label whose challenging and experimental catalog, in vinyl and cassette format, spans from ambient to electronic experimentation, dub, and avant-garde. They publish the work of artists constantly exploring new sound territories, such as Felicia Atkinson, Driftmachine, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Gudrun Gut, Siavash Amini, among many others.