Rafael Anton Irisarri 'Midnight Colours' [LP] (SIGNED COPY)

Pressed on bio-based PVC. BioVinyl is a new sustainable vinyl record alternative. Bio-based PVC is used in the production process. The quality of BioVinyl is identical to a conventional vinyl record: the acoustic and optical quality identical . The entire production process of the BioVinyl is subject to the ISCC PLUS-process. This certification guarantees a responsible and sustainable PVC supply chain in the sense of the circular economy.

Meticulously remastered edition making its inaugural debut on vinyl. "Midnight Colours" is an exploration of the enigmatic relationship between humanity and time. Conceived as a sonic interpretation of the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the world's existential vulnerabilities, Irisarri's work beckons listeners to contemplate the gravity of our existence and the delicate balance that envelops it.

"I wanted to capture the essence of humanity's relationship with time, both the anxiety and the serene beauty that coexists its shadows" explains Irisarri. "The vinyl format adds a tactile dimension to the experience, inviting listeners to physically engage with the music."

Recorded in 2017, when the Clock was at 2½ minutes-to-midnight (and at the time, the second-closest to midnight since the Clock's inception in 1947), "Midnight Colours" permeates with the melancholy of memories resurfacing as one approaches the end of life: the regrets, the closure, the uncertainties, the anxieties.

Originally released as a limited tape on the beloved Atlanta-based label Geographic North, "Midnight Colours" swiftly garnered praise and acclaim within the ambient music sphere. Now, with this newly remastered edition on his own Black Knoll imprint, fans, both longstanding and newfound, can rediscover the album's captivating beauty in unprecedented clarity and depth.

"I've wanted to release 'Midnight Colours' on vinyl since it first came out, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to. The remastering process, brilliantly done by Stephan Mathieu, has breathed new life into the work, and I'm eager for listeners to experience it in this format."

The reissue of "Midnight Colours" features band-new artwork and design by the renowned Mexican visual artist Daniel Castrejón. A frequent collaborator and friend of Irisarri, Castrejón's imagery impeccably complements the album's mood and themes, extending a compelling invitation for listeners to explore its aural world visually.

"Anyone who has heard or been touched by the amazing ambient music of New York based composer and producer Irisarri in recent years will be delighted to see that the long out of print tape Midnight Colours is finally getting a meticulously remastered edition. The album is an exploration of the relationship between humanity and time, hinged around a sonic interpretation of the Doomsday Clock and the existential vulnerabilities it implies. Inviting contemplation, it also feels like a stirring call for action - its plangency and mournfulness actually seems way more of a clarion call than more avowedly polemical music could muster. As ever with Irisarri's work, there's a gorgeous serenity to opener "The Clock" but also presentiments of anxiety and danger. "Falling Curtain" is a swelling surge that builds and fades with all the poise and poignancy of Lull and Stars Of The Lid; "Oh Paris, We Are Fucked" (greatest ambient title ever?) glides and shudders like a glacier; and it's those creepy edges of the sound that draw your ear in, as if beyond the titanic structures within the music you can hear biological sentience flickering into - and out of - life. For such immersive music, which usually denotes calm and wellness, Irisarri's creations genuinely touch on being too much for the soul, a sudden vertiginous apprehension of ancient geologic forces and time. The penultimate track "Drifting" leaves you stranded on an ice floe as six months of light slips into a half-year of darkness before the closer "A Ruptured Tranquillity" builds subterranean bass into a heartbeat too slow to be human, but too instinctively empathetic to be anything other than the sad dying pulse of the planet itself. Irisarri's music always spins you out into a contemplative space but it never becomes meditative - there's always an urgency of action implied by these rumblings and murmurings of something beyond all of us." - Neil Kulkarni (RIP), The Wire 

Written, produced, and performed by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Originally recorded in 2017.
Mixed at Black Knoll (NY), August 2023.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Artwork and layout - Daniel Castrejón
Legal – Matt Cuttler, Esq
Lacquer Cut by Loop-o
Pressed at Optimal (DE)

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