Sometimes you set goals and miss them. That’s what happened to Japanese songwriter Eiko Ishibashi with her new album “Antigone”. She revealed in an interview that she wanted it to be light – music that could be played in the background. Now the eight songs clearly shimmer in the realms of indie pop, but it would be madness not to listen to this record carefully. And it’s not easy at any time: the overriding theme was the word »graveyard«, she said – and that describes the tension in the essence of this sound very well.
»Trial,« for example, could be a floating piece of splendor if it weren’t for the crushing rhythm that gradually infects the rest of the song. Or »The Model«, which slides into a twisted apocalypse that evaporates in the orchestra pit at the end. On this album you can hear an implosion of pop music. Nothing has a fixed place, nothing gives stability – in fact, »Antigone« feels asynchronous, even though everything seems to be exactly in place. The final moments of »Continuous Contiguous« reveal the dark and vulnerable heart of this record. If you listen closely, you will find the darkness, the uncertainty of our times in this album. Once you hear this album, it will haunt you. No matter where, no matter what the destination.
Antigone
