Release Notes
Label: 130701 / FatCat Records
Release: The River
Date: December 6th, 2024
Mastered By: Alan Douches
Artwork By: Nic Shonfeld
I’ve been a loyal follower of the 130701 since its birth date, after which this offshoot from the UK-based FatCat Records was named. Its celebrated catalogue includes renowned releases by Max Richter, Hauschka, Resina, Dustin O’Halloran, and, of course, the late Jóhann Jóhannsson – many of whom have received numerous accolades across modern classical, electronic, and film institutions. I don’t think it would be an understatement to claim that 130701 played a pivotal role in the evolution of the crossover genre, blending contemporary classical with experimental and cinematic elements to reach an audience around the globe. Today, I’m happy to share a newly signed artist to the label, who will undoubtedly make an impression on you as past alumni did. Ava Rasti hails from Tehran, Iran, where she composes brooding, emotional and haunting music, blending elements of ambient, modern classical and drone. If the name of the Icelandic cellist, Hildur Guðnadóttir, evokes a particular aesthetic in your heart, you shall immediately gravitate towards this sound. Ava Rasti’s new album, titled The River, explores how places can hold onto unreliable memories, often shifting the narrative through a perspective clouded by time. Here, Rasti reflects on Heraclitus, paraphrasing, “We never step in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and we are not the same human being.”
Stitched out of tiny patches of famous classical pieces, effected and looped until the fragments are unrecognisable, Rasti employs the aesthetic of combining what’s deeply familiar with something entirely new. The orchestral progressions are drenched in a wet complex signal chain as if the sounds are dipped into a river and pulled out and raised on the clothesline to drip their sorrow onto the soil. Mild distortion and noise are carefully placed in the soundstage to let the main melody breathe, as if kissed by a wind to gently sway, twist and flutter, creating a rhythmic, hypnotic motion. Here, memories, water, and feelings are fused into one, rippling echoes of longing, whispering the bittersweet passing of time.
The Dead Horse is a remembrance of, and a dedication to innocent animals killed in battle. [It] begins as a delicate, melancholy, minor key hum. A buzz, that blurs, moving slightly in and out of focus. Mournful, muted and manipulated orchestration gradually building in volume and intensity, and only hinting at the hidden details involved in its creation.
Mastered by Alan Douches (WestWestSide), the album comes out this Friday, December 6th, released as a digital and a 12″ LP. Each limited-edition vinyl features a unique, “one of one” hand-printed cover photograph. For this, label curator Nic Shonfeld commissioned photographer Alexander Gabriel to darkroom print unique variations of the cover image from the original negative. Tied closely to the theme of memory, these variations reflect the album’s central concept and Heraclitus’s most memorable insight: “The only constant is change.” Mark this one down for “best of the year”.
