Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri /La Equidistancia (ASIPV008)
Two of ambient music's most revered producers come together for the first time in a harmonious meeting of technique and style. Leandro Fresco (Kompakt) and Rafael Anton Irisarri (Room 40, Ghostly) present their ambient opus, La Equidistancia on A Strangely Isolated Place.
Introduced to each other by the label, the two artists found common ground with thousands of miles between them, in more ways than one. A desire for each other's work sparked a productive partnership that quickly found Leandro creating specific sounds based on concrete directives from Rafael.
Leandro Fresco’s signature melodies and warm, colorful textures have adorned the Argentinian’s work ever since his first appearance on Kompakt’s Pop Ambient Series in 2003, right up to his latest artist album El Reino Invisible (2015). This “melodic sensibility” as Rafael likes to say, proved to be the defining undercurrent to Rafael’s signature sound design, a combination that takes each of their distinct sounds into new heartbreaking territory. The emotions heard on Rafael’s previous album, A Fragile Geography (2015), are a welcome prequel to the crushing depths found amongst La Equidistancia - proven by Rafael at some of his recent shows:
“I played a few songs from this collaboration on my last tour and I got some incredible feedback. Some people felt it was emotionally cleansing, some had tears in their eyes, it was definitely moving”.
Well versed in production partnerships (both as Orcas and Gailes, alongside Benoît Pioulard) RAI found an inspiring and quick flow to finish the record, as Leandro left the space to express himself and the authority to finish: “There's that new excitement that comes with a new music project and once I get going, I obsess over it and need to see it done. As in ‘man, I want to really hear this record while I walk around the woods, so I better finish it so I can enjoy it!”
This efficient partnership resulted in a record that will be a unique yet identifiable stylistic combination between them both. But upon deeper listening, La Equidistancia unearths a complex and introspective reflection of the many fragmented memories and expressions held amongst two newly-formed friends, thousands of miles apart.
Without the ability to meet in person, it could be said the record became the musical equivalent to a shared cup of tea or drink at the bar - common ground between two good friends. Emotions are clearly channeled throughout the building tension, soaring atmospheres and crumbling distant worlds heard throughout La Equidistancia. Leandro’s melodies add a warm depth to Rafael’s harmonic distortions, effect pedals, and tape loops (made with a crusty 1/2” tape machine in Rafael’s Black Knoll Studio) - “I really love that grainy aspect you can hear in the music, degraded in a way, like it's been trough some rough patches (as both Lean and I have been through over the years)”.
These rough patches, as Leandro details, are “printed and encapsulated in the grooves of the vinyl. And although they can not be seen, they will remain there. I am sure that something Raf and I felt, will reach the listener”.
“There's a lot of sadness and memories in the music. I feel that one most embrace this sadness and share it; make others know we are not so different; not alone in this world”. - RAI
La Equidistancia is an album of two newly formed friends, two minds, and two lives equidistant to each other.
Leandro Fresco | Kompakt | Facebook | Twitter
Rafael Anton Irisarri | web | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter
“It’s exactly what you expect an ambient album to sound like but also the standard by which other modern ambient LPs should be judged against. It’s not just a once-in-a-lifetime meeting of minds, no: it’s the best Ambient/Instrumental album of the year.”
“Achingly beautiful”
Released April 10th 2017
Cloudy-clear & black-smoke 12" vinyl, matte-laminated sleeve, + poster insert, & digital download.
Written & produced by Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri between San Martín de los Andes, Argentina and New York, USA
during Winter/Summer 2016. Mixed at Black Knoll Studio
(New York).
Mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12k Mastering
Published by Outer Worlds Publishing.
All Rights Reserved 2017.
Artwork / layout by Nick Brzostowski
Additional layout by Artwork / layout by Molly Smith.
Photo by Nicolas Amoroso & Chommpi Poggi NOUUEI.
“ The album’s slow, lugubrious sounds engulf the listener like molasses”
“...a morphological tapestry of sonic visions, multi-layered with thick guitar-driven drones, ambient pads, and organic noise surfaces.”
“... a gorgeous slab of a thick ambient environment with a pulsating heart to it.”