A Fragile Geography: Reworks [Cassette]

Rafael Anton Irisarri - A Fragile Geography: Reworks [Cassette]

A decade after its release, A Fragile Geography returns transformed. This limited-edition cassette accompanies the AFG10 anniversary reissue, offering an inspired re-envisioning of Rafael Anton Irisarri's landmark compositions. Reworks presents distinctive readings of these pieces, with each artist leaving their personal mark on the material. The titles remain unchanged, with the sole exception of "Hiatus," reborn here as "Ausencia." Together, these reimaginings extend the emotional cartography of the album into new terrains. KMRU reframes "Displacement" with expansive, glimmering layers that open into meditative ambient landscapes. Penelope Trappes renders "Reprisal" as a voice-led invocation of the delicate and the intimate. Her wistful vocals bloom with fragile sorrow, rising over shimmering strands of strings to create a sound world at once sacred and shadowed. Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) transforms "Empire Systems" into a cavernous "Iced Mix," driven by polyrhythmic double bass motifs and sculpted from subterranean pressure and negative space. On Side B, Mabe Fratti opens with a cinematic, dreamlike, Lynchian reimagining of "Hiatus" in her native Spanish ("Ausencia"). She threads cello and voice so wondrously that her rendering feels at once hauntingly beautiful and disquieting. Abul Mogard stretches "Persistence" into a vast drone elegy. A master of patient sound sculpting, Mogard layers evolving waves of analog synths into a dense shroud that radiates its own internal light. William Basinski and Gary Thomas Wright close the cycle with a spectral version of "Secretly Wishing for Rain." Basinski's field recordings of Reseda rainfall and birdsong, which open and close the rework, add a personal touch and evoke the imagined sound of a grainy film reel flickering to life. A final gesture that dissolves the album into vapor, leaving the listener adrift in its lingering afterglow. Mastered with great care by Stephan Mathieu and featuring a remixed version of the original artwork by Daniel Castrejón, this edition refracts the language of the original through new prisms. Less a return than a passage, across time, across interpretation, into uncharted emotional realms. 01. Displacement (KMRU Rework) (4:16) 02. Reprisal (Penelope Trappes Rework) (7:06) 03. Empire Systems (Kevin Richard Martin Rework - Iced Mix) (9:20) 04. Ausencia (Mabe Fratti Hiatus Rework) (3:10) 05. Persistence (Abul Mogard Rework) (10:00) 06. Secretly Wishing For Rain (William Basinski & Gary Thomas Wright Rework) (7:44)