At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the two French philosophers Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre replaced the concept of fine arts with that of cultural good, a principle that enclosed the idea that a work as well as being conceived as a commodity is above all a moral and spiritual need, a real testimony of civilization.
For Eiko Ishibashi every creative act is a moment of pure spirituality and artistic affirmation. The new album “Antigone” is the umpteenth page of the many who has disseminated during an over -year career, largely shared with another dispenser of total artistic gestures: Jim O'Rouke.
The music of Eiko Ishibashi is often defined as not cataloged, to be honest, the work of the Japanese artist have elusive, unreliable, unpredictable, different but still cataloged. “Antigone” is a project that in addition to reworking the first pop intuitions, resumes the ecstatic art-pop beauty of “The Dream My Bones Dream”, enriching it with further precious details and musical experiences.
For those who are familiar with musicians such as David Sylvian, Talk Talk, Julia Holter, Angelo Badalamenti and certain Jazz of the ECM house, these eight songs are further variations on the theme perfectly embedded and elaborate, with a multiplicity of ideas and arrangements that mockery of aesthetic perfection for a more noble and refined conception of song.
The Groove Sophisti-Jazz at the Donald Fagen of “Coma” and the articulated prog-folk minisuite with the interesting literary implications of “The Model” represent the two extremes within which Eiko Ishibashi stretches himself with skilled compositional and instrumental vein, as well as with a deep knowledge of the matter, mixed and altered with a pinch of cosmic surrealism (the artist has declared in the past declared Admiration for both Genesis and Joni Mitchell).
“Antigone” is a record that declares its intentions already from the first introductory notes of “Octaber”, a song that between hints of psychedelia, odd jazz and orchestral magniloquence times, synthesizers and voices recorded in the background, gives life to powerful and visionary music; It is therefore not surprising that the delicate ballad “Mona Lisa” sounds like a soundtrack for an imaginary unpublished film by David Lynch.
What is further amazed is the artist's ability to put in sixth rich and elaborate compositions, yet essential in their structure, are sometimes imperceptible changes of tone and agreements the real protagonists of the songs (“Nothing as”), other times is the extreme care given to each of the instruments the nodal center of compositions (“Continuous contiguos”), at the same time the voice of Eiko Ishibashi is Enchanting, to the point that it seems almost impossible that in the last seven years its record incursions have been more prone to the sound commentary of films and ambient digressions (“Drive My Car”, “Evil Does Not Exist”).
In a year already full of relevant ideas, it is still difficult to imagine a more touching and intense page of the title tracka chamber-pop placed on elegant notes of blues that well represent the drama evoked by the figure of Antigone, heroin symbol of courage and loyalty, values that today resonate as a warning for a generation that seems to have lost hope.
01/05/2025
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
