These pieces originate from the COVID-19 Fundraiser Auction that Cafe Oto ran in early 2020. Lot 178 offered a unique opportunity to have a composition remixed by Rafael Anton Irisarri, who has previously remixed ambient luminaries such as Biosphere, Loscil and Christina Vantzou. This release presents the outcome of this collaboration. The original track by Adrian Newton (Nemeton) features processed sounds derived from an improvised 'cello performance by Stan Adler, who had a long career making adventurous music with the likes of Chrome Strings, the Jon Lloyd Sextet and Apparitions. Sadly Stan passed away just a few days after these recordings were made in Adrian's studio, so this piece is a small tribute to him. Multi-track stems of the piece were made available to Rafael, enabling him to create his own distinctive soundworld with these same materials.
The artists have very kindly offered all proceeds for this release to be passed to Cafe OTO.
"Irisarri embodies the hybrid genre…the new kind of composer, who exists in an undifferentiated welter of pop, techno, and classical." - Pitchfork (USA)
Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music producer, interdisciplinary artist and curator. Predominantly associated with ambient, drone, post-minimalist, and modern classical music, Irisarri’s recorded output captures an essential vision of floating tones, deep pulsing bass and textural electronics. His use of ostinato phrases taps into minimalist ideals while atmospheric layers of effects suggests a more cinematic quality in his productions. In all, Irisarri’s compositions are deeply emotive and epic to the point of being symphonic.
