Back to the roots of one of the most influential south-american songwriter and composer. A pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s, Joao was often called "father of bossa ", while in his native Brazil he was referred to as "O Mito" ("The Legend"). This compilation investigates his early career, showing the many sides of his sophisticated art.
Welcome to the kickoff of DemoDc's 5-EP series, where he reflects on the complexities of our times. Coining "Meiosistosis" from mitosis and meiosis, DemoDc creates a unique vocabulary to express his deep perspective. Released through Heart Heart Records, the music follows a non-linear, cyclic journey, with each track standing independently, guiding listeners through an evolving experience.
"A1 - Awake" opens the series, celebrating those brave enough to face their flaws in a world of false promises. With introspective melodies and harmonies, the track encourages self-discovery and reflection, urging listeners to seek their own truths.
"A2 - Not From Around Here" embraces individuality, using its ethereal tones to highlight the strength found in being different and celebrating the alien within us all.
"B1 - Glimpsed (Original Mix)" offers a brief taste of the profound mysteries of the present, reminding us that truth is personal and elusive.
"B2 - Glimpsed (Metapattern Mix)" the remix by Berlin's Metapattern transforms the original track into a deep, pulsating techno piece perfect for DJs, adding a powerful twist to this captivating musical journey.
Known principally as a smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over. Tragically passing away in March 2023 at the too young age of 71, it still feels as if Bobby's true artistry is profoundly under-appreciated. His double platinum self-titled album from 1978 is a timeless masterpiece of sophisticated jazzy soul brilliance and is strictly canonical. Yes, it's perfect, yet it's been out of press on vinyl for years. We're deeply honoured to present the long-awaited reissue this summer.
Whilst Ned Doheny is known in Japan as "Mr California", native New Yorker Bobby Caldwell has always been "Mr AOR" to his Far-Eastern friends. His distinct charm is an irresistible blend of soul, jazz, and pop influences. He possessed phenomenal songwriting prowess, smooth vocal performances, was both a great soul guitarist and dextrous keyboard player and known for genius chord progressions. It all added up to a multi-layered brilliance entering the studio, and the singular sound he landed on was laced with soulful, sweeping strings and funky horns, touching lightly on disco, while allowing his supple voice to carry the stunning tracks he'd crafted.
String-swept opener "Special To Me" immediately sets the tone with its lush instrumentation, rich harmonies, and Caldwell's velvety-smooth vocals. Next up, a huge one. The infectious, mid-tempo bounce of "My Flame" showcases Caldwell's ability to effortlessly blend catchy pop hooks with soulful arrangements. It's an exquisite, emotive ballad that, at the same time, absolutely SLAPS. Game recognise game, and all that, so, accordingly, Notorious B.I.G. memorably ran with “My Flame” for his 1997 single “Sky’s The Limit”. The rolling, disco-very "Love Won't Wait" is a slick, uptempo track containing heartfelt lyrics intertwined with elegant strings and a horn section to die for. Aching - and achingly cool - single "Can't Say Goodbye" is a real fan favourite, and it's no surprise. It's a laconic, slow-mo jazz-funk stepper, with fantastic, very deliberate playing that closes out the A Side quite exceptionally. "Come To Me" slows proceedings down elegantly to open Side B before the universally agreed-upon masterpiece enters proceedings.
"What You Won't Do for Love," the standout hit that became a classic in its own right, perfectly captured Bobby's ability to infuse a contagious groove with introspective and relatable lyrics. With its instantly recognisable horn riff and Caldwell's soulful delivery, this timeless, chiller anthem continues to captivate audiences and define his musical legacy. He scored huge with the track, taking over the pop and R&B airways with this mellow soul stepper. It has remained a perennial favourite and has been heavily sampled, such is its unique allure; Aaliyah sang over snatches of it on "Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number" and you can hear Caldwell’s vocal sample used for the hook on Tupac’s posthumously released “Do For Love”.
Upon submitting the finished album to his label, they requested more material in hope of a big single. As Bobby remembered to Wax Poetics a few years ago: “Now at this point, I’m mentally exhausted...and bear in mind that I got so close to all the songs I’d written. I gave each song a profound amount of thought, and maybe too much. So, in haste, I went in and cut this song, "What You Won’t Do For Love". Wrote it in a day, cut the rhythm track, overdubbed the horns, I sang the song, and literally turned it in three days after. And lo and behold, the one song I gave the least thought to,” Bobby laughed, “ended up being a national anthem.”
The mysterious, magical "Kalimba Song" is a cosmic, kalimba-driven melodic-funk instrumental - short but oh, so sweet. It's followed by the supreme tear-jerker "Take Me Back To Then", Bobby's otherworldly voice deeply longing for a simpler time, "when life was mellow". I think we can all get behind this sentiment. The final cut is arguably its deepest, its low-key finest moment. For us, it is, anyway. The glorious, driving, effortlessly funky guitar-soul jam "Down For The Third Time" is a huge melancholic Be With favourite and has been played by discerning genre-hopping DJs with significant glee for years. Hypnotic, melodic, beautiful. Like the album it elegantly rounds out.
Bobby sadly passed away on 23rd March 2023, after a long struggle with mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress, due to an adverse effect from a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The reissue of his wonderful eponymous album will be available on vinyl across the globe, ensuring that fans of his incomparable talent - and soul music enthusiasts worldwide - can radiate in the deep beauty of this seminal album. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland.
Meiosistosis is a unique and creative descriptive innerstanding created by DemoDc taken from the scientific terminology of Mitosis - a splitting of one cell to create 2 identical cells and Meiosis - a splitting of 1 cell to create 4 very unique cells. Combining these 2 findings to create its own unique expression of what Demo feels earth herself is potentially going through in what most humans refer to as 'crazy mad' times.
‘Call me mad or crazy yet my artistic take on all this madness of change, coming from a more spiritual aware perspective, I feel its very possible and plausible that earth herself is shifting from an energetical vibrational frequency resonance, shifting from a lower to a higher frequency that has souls who inhabit at this present time on Earth, have choices made available to either shift to these higher frequencies of perception or to chose to remain in the lower frequencies of perception’
….says Demo when explaining the meaning of the titles chosen for his brand new releases. Hence, from this perspective it would give more purpose and meaning with the Earth splitting itself from 1 earth into 2 with the merging of it being identical and unique all at once.
True or not, through creative expression can we all individually make sense in our own rights, which then gives more power to the inner-standing of what co-creating with any greater power outside of ourselves, is. Each track holds its own unique expression to what has been described here and of course gives each listener a chance to give meaning to what is embraced in their own connection made when absorbed in the creations these ep's offer.
Dopplereffekt present Athanatos, their forth release for Leisure System, including a stunning collaboration with Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender. Advancing the concepts of growth and decay considered in Cellular Automata, the duo of Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan explore the genetic conditions behind mortality in five sections, each offering a different interpretation of the subject matter. While conceived as a whole, the parts could be seen as functional devices in an iterative process. The release features artwork by Carsten Nicolai,
Maeve kicks off their first label compilation 'Heavy Rotations Vol 1', covering all facets of the labels sound with tracks from Mano Le Tough, Isolée, Oliver Deutschmann, Ed Davenport, Aera and more. Comes as 3 LP in a specially designed cover consisting of 3 differently printed innersleves in a cut out outersleeve.
Oddball Japanese electro-fueled vocoder funk with occasional raps from the 80s, including unreleased material...
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Japanese Electro original, Minoru Hoodoo Fushimi, self-released four albums. Two vinyl LPs and two CDs between 1985 and 1992. Melbourne`s Left Ear Records have selected twelve tracks, for a double vinyl retrospective. 10 tracks from Minoru`s four albums and a further two unreleased tracks from the archives.
Minoru set out to combine his love of all things Funk with traditional instruments and song from his homeland. He uses shamisen on Thanatopsis. Where Parliament`s Flashlight, George Clinton`s Atomic Dog, ride with Osamu Kitajima`s Masterless Samurai. Shakuhachi on Mizuko No Tamashii Hyakumademo. Nohdashi puts koto with a Jimmy Castor riff. All set to popping and locking beats.
Minoru`s vocals switch between raps about cellular metabolism and haemoglobin, Soul croon and vocoder. On Shinz-San he adds Metal guitar to vintage Sugarhill. And he goes crazy with his sampler. Scratching in cats, frogs, babies, laughter, giggles, traffic jams, failing ignitions, opera singers, and amorous sighs. Furarete mixes elephant roars and Go-Go. Creating unique avant grooves that share something with Tackhead`s ON-U Sound System, Savant`s tape experiments, and fellow countrymen EP-4.
co-compiled by Left Ear Records and Jerome Qpchan
Recorded during an almost 24-hour marathon first-day session for All My Relations, "Mitote" emerged from group improvisation and composition, featuring Sunny Jain (Red Baraat) on the dhol. Bosco and the band worked up an arrangement quickly with a heavy backbeat, building the melody on a blues form-embodying the world's nature of ecstasy and struggle.
"D i l o" was recorded during the Ancestros Futuros sessions, but was left off the album. The rhythmic framework was composed by Brian Wolfe and arranged by the band. The song features call and response between the percussion and saxophone punctuated by high bell patterns and low bottom drum hits.
Ruffiani is the new joint venture between Sam Ruffillo and Fimiani – a playground for edits, sample reworks and cheeky dancefloor tricks. The first release brings together four cuts that go from classic sample-based grooves to refined eighties-inspired proto-house vibes, up to a shamelessly catchy tune built around a very familiar Italian hook… and a final club weapon made to blow the room apart.
Unfolding ist Jessica Moss' meditativstes und klagendstes Soloalbum und vielleicht das erste in der jahrzehntelangen Diskografie der Violinistin und Komponistin aus Montreal, das man zu Recht als Ambient bezeichnen kann. Die ehemalige Mitglied von Silver Mt Zion und Black Ox Orkestar schöpft aus Postklassik, Drone, Minimalismus, Industrial/Metal, Power Electronics, Klezmer und anderen Folk-Traditionen. Es handelt sich hierbei nicht um abstrakte Ambient-Musik; vielschichtige Violinenmelodien, elektroakustische Bearbeitungen, intermittierende Stimmen und Percussion von Tony Buck, dem Schlagzeuger von The Necks, bringen zutiefst emotionale, genreübergreifende Kompositionen hervor, die von einem Geist der Suche und Beschwörung geleitet sind und sich in einer vorherrschenden Atmosphäre von Beschwörung und trauernder Zurückhaltung entfalten. Die Untrennbarkeit von Persönlichem und Politischem hat sich für Moss in den letzten zwei Jahren immer stärker herauskristallisiert. Als Kernmitglied der Montrealer Sektion von Musicians For Palestine hat sie mehrere Benefizkonzerte mitorganisiert und gespielt und im Frühjahr 2024 das Soloalbum For UNRWA veröffentlicht (das über 800 Unterstützer fand und Tausende von Dollar einbrachte). Später im selben Jahr zerbrach ihre langjährige Fernbeziehung aufgrund politischer Differenzen. In enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Produzenten Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) entstanden ,Unfolding" in den letzten zwölf Monaten, dem zweiten Jahr des Völkermords in Palästina, als direkte Reaktion auf unser kollektives Miterleben, unsere kollektive Trauer, als Portal zur kollektiven Trauer, als Suchscheinwerfer durch unsere inneren Wettersysteme, auf der Suche nach einander in der Dunkelheit. Moss bewegte sich bereits in Richtung einer erhöhten Fragilität und einem tiefen Zuhören, ihre Musik wurde zunehmend langatmig und zeremoniell. Trotz der stark gesunkenen finanziellen Rentabilität von Tourneen wurde ihre Hingabe, Raum zu schaffen, Verflechtungen herzustellen und eine Verbindung zu einem intimen Live-Publikum aufzubauen, zu ihrem kreativen Leitstern, ihre Solo-Praxis wurde durch ihr Engagement und die Kommunikation in diesen Räumen geprägt. Die jüngsten politischen und persönlichen Umwälzungen haben diese ritualisierten, reparativen musikalischen Prozesse nur noch verstärkt. Die beiden langen Stücke auf der ersten Seite von Unfolding verkörpern diese Sensibilität. ,Washing Machine" verwebt Schichten von Streicherdrones und Filigranarbeit, sanft verzerrt durch Verzerrerpedale und Verstärkung, wobei unentzifferbare, ausgeblasene Sprechstimmen den Mix zeitweise als fragmentarische Palimpseste verhüllter Rezitationen und unbeschreiblicher Gefühle umhüllen. Der Ursprung des Stücks liegt in einer Telefonaufnahme einer europäischen Waschmaschine, die Moss aufnahm, als sie neben ihr saß, mit gebrochenem Herzen auf dem Badezimmerboden, und Trost fand, indem sie eine Melodie zu den mechanischen Obertönen der Waschmaschine summte, die ihren Zyklus durchlief. Das Herzstück des Albums, ,One, Now", beginnt als zarte Anrufung mit Basspuls, Glockenspiel und Glocken, gezupften Saiten und traurigen Lead-Violinenlinien, die von jüdischen und arabischen Modi beeinflusst sind. Umgebungsgeräusche, Feldaufnahmen und wortlose Gesänge werden hinzugefügt, während sich Violinenmelodien überlagern und zu einer hypnotisierenden Drone-Landschaft verschmelzen: eine halb improvisierte, lebendige Komposition, die durch Tony Bucks pinselstrichartiges Schlagzeugspiel und Moumnehs ,Schrei in die Leere" am Ende noch weiter belebt wird. Die zweite Seite ist ein vierteiliges Werk mit dem Titel ,no one / no where / no one is free / until all are free", das sich durch Umgebungsgeräusche, elegische postklassische Streicher und verzerrte harmonische Drones zu einem Höhepunkt aus liturgischer Orgel, rituellen Glocken und schimmernden elektronischen Spuren entwickelt, der die Bühne bereitet für den letzten Song des Albums: die erschütternde Chor-Komposition ,until all are free", eine weltliche Hymne, die aus Jessicas mehrspurigen Gesangsaufnahmen besteht (die sie aber gerne mit anderen im Konzert singen würde). Unfolding ist ,einem freien Palästina in unserer Lebenszeit" gewidmet. Danke fürs Zuhören.
A captivating deep cut from the golden age of Italian library music, Il Ponte Dell’Asia stands as one of Piero Umiliani’s most evocative and exotic soundscapes. Originally released in 1967 as a private pressing for Italian the TV documentary by Corrado Sofia, this elusive gem blends Far Eastern motifs with the elegance of mid-century European jazz and the textured experimentation that defines Umiliani’s best work.
On Il Ponte Dell’Asia, Umiliani constructs a cinematic bridge between continents, layering modal melodies, sinuous flutes, shimmering vibraphones, and richly orchestrated strings over hypnotic rhythms and subtly psychedelic touches. The result is a masterful fusion of East-meets-West that channels both travelogue fantasy and avant-garde sophistication — a rare synthesis of traditional instrumentation and modernist sensibility.
Exported from the original tapes, pressed on high-quality vinyl and with faithfully restored artwork, this reissue offers a long-overdue return to one of Umiliani’s most immersive sonic journeys, an essential for fans of Italian library music, film scores, and genre-defying jazz.
Rediscover a lost jewel from the vault of one of Italy’s most visionary composers — where bamboo forests, smoky clubs, and dreamlike landscapes converge in sound.
©℗ 1967, Liuto Edizioni Musicali / Licensed to Holy Basil Records by Liuto Edizioni Musica
The Mars Volta's ninth studio album represents a significant milestone for the band, which has been continually reinventing itself for more than 20 years. With “Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacio," they deliver an album that celebrates their roots, allowing them to reconnect with their origins. Fans are invited to embark on a musical journey.
Kumio Kurachi is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has been active since the 1980's.
This is his 11th solo album and only the second to be released outside of Japan following ‘Sound of Turning Earth’ (2018) on bison. Though his songs are written and performed primarily on guitar, “Open Today” is a return to Kurachi’s full, multi-instrumental recording style - featuring drums, bass, strings, keys and Kurachi’s rich, distinctive vocals in multiple voicings. Incredibly, all instrumental performances and arrangements were performed and recorded by Kurachi himself - marking a brilliant return to the fully fleshed out visionary world we fell in love with on Supermarket Chitose (Enban, 2006). The super fine detail and dense landscapes of ‘Open Today’ should come as no surprise really - Kurachi is an illustrator by trade and it bleeds right through to his music. Even to the non-native speaker Kurachi’s vocals hold centre stage - at times enormous and thundering over urgent guitar and toms, then switching to softly spoken words amongst keys. Frequently Kurachi multiplies, whether multitracking himself or summoning voices for the characters he writes from sightings on train platforms or supermarkets. His lyrics - translated to English for both formats - are more like poetry, and though written about the mundane they quickly become surreal, bringing the quality of dreams into the everyday. The hours spent on buses, trains or walking home towards a cheap flat - familiar to us all - are catalysts for microcosms of detail.
Again, we shouldn’t be surprised - Kurachi is well known in Japan for winning the national championship of NHK's "Poetry Boxing" in 2002, which also might explain his amazing Discogs photo. Poet, illustrator, multi-instrumentalist - Kurachi is thought of by many as a genius. He’s worked with Jim O’Rourke, Tori Kudo, Eiko Ishibashi and Taku Unami (who did the mastering on this LP). There are lines to be drawn between Kurachi and Kazuki Tomokawa or Kan Mikami, but also Francis Plagne and Fairport Convention.
Ultimately though there is nothing else like it - it’s a brand of strange songcraft that’s totally captivating.
Lisbon's Para?so is back with its 14th release 'Crossroads' by local legend-in-the-making Salbany and remixes from portuguese dance music pioneer Cisco Ferreira a.k.a. The Advent and Detroit's own AMX otherwise known as The AM. The record opens with 'My Life', a warm yet propulsive detroit-referencing techno cut with pad washes, shuffling hi hats, an introspective vocal sample, cascading organ solos and arpeggios to a blissful effect. A2 'Crossroads' brings us a raw, bouncy, jam-like rhythmic section with syncopated toms and snares offset by a piano stab motif and emotive strings. 'Next Morning' closes side A, a hypnotic, curveball roller featuring a warm, rolling bass, offbeat drum hits glued together by immersive pads and UR-esque strings. Side B opener 'Mito' delves into trippier territories with admirable skill - not losing an inch in dancefloor potential - fusing bleeps and bells, beautiful chord progressions and hyper groovy drum machine programming. Techno icon Cisco Ferreira steps in with his 'Lisbon Dub' remix, transforming 'Crossroads' into a sparser, delay-infused slow-burner held together by a dope bass line. AMX brings the lead synth of 'Mito' to a lower octave, mutating it into a swingy midwestern experimental cut that inspires urgency and life force. A restless mantra emerges via the digital bonus track, an alternate 'Elevated' remix of 'Crossroads' that superbly merges original detroitian leanings and industrial textures in a no-frills peaktime banger. This is one of those records that lovingly reminds us techno is about emotion, swing, energy. As in life, nothing here sits still: movement, physical and metaphysical, is the messenger of progress.
Erste remasterte Reissue von Minoru Fushimis rarem Debütalbum 'Thanatos Of Funk' (1985) in limitierter Auflage auf rot-gold-farbigem Vinyl, ein Meilenstein der japanischen Underground- und Electro-Funk-/frühen Hip-Hop-Geschichte. Die von Fushimi selbst produzierte und vertriebene Rarität ist eine Liebeserklärung an die Gegenkultur, DIY, Drum Machines und Synthesizer, gepaart mit Killer-Shamisen und Gitarren. Die Neuauflage enthält den handgeschriebenen Original-Comic von Fushimi mit englischen Übersetzungen. Essentiell!
The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.
Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.
Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.
Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”
Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.
The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.
The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.
Has the American myth finally run its course?
The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.
Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.
Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.
Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”
Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.
The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.
The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.
Has the American myth finally run its course?
