Audiopile Review: It’s possible to be a fan of an artist while simply missing a significant portion of their artistry. Plenty of MFs worship the godlike Peter Hammill as a prog deity for his work with Van der Graaf Generator, without even knowing that his late 70s solo albums are foundational post-punk texts. Likewise, there are lots of heads who’d count themselves fans of Eiko Ishibashi as a composer of instrumental music, not least for her glorious ‘Drive My Car’ soundtrack. But Ishibashi has a parallel career as an avant rock singer-songwriter. And her new album, ‘Antigone’, is very much in that vein. Ignorance about this strand of Ishibashi’s work probably stems from the fact that she’s mostly come to prominence in the interim since her last song-based album, 2018’s ‘The Dream My Bones Dream’. That album did win a fair number of fans with its combination of Can-style skeletal beats, Tujiko Noriko-like songscapes, and complex arrangements that were 100% Ishibashi. ‘Antigone’ is every bit as impressive, but it’s closer to the avant-lounge pop of 2012’s ‘Imitation of Life’. Where that album bore the mark of its producer (and Ishibashi’s life partner) Jim O’Rourke, ‘Antigone’ sounds only like her. While this may be a singer-songwriter album, it’s Ishibashi the composer who really shines here. The beautiful, winding melodies are more sophisticated than just about anything rock music has produced in recent years. The closest comparison we can come up with is a less mannered version of Ishibashi’s Drag City labelmate Joanna Newsom (another O’Rourke collaborator). Or maybe ‘An Acrobat’s Heart’-era Annette Peacock. In any case, it’s time to discover that your favourite ambient-lounge-avant-jazz-noise composer should also be your favourite ambient-lounge-avant-jazz-noise singer-songwriter.

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Antigone is a chilling look at our already-alternate reality, coming from inside Eiko Isibashi’s own head. Her band brings a wide array of sounds and moods, shading pop, funk and jazz, ambient, electronic and musique concrète in a bittersweet latticework. Interlocking her new songs in seamless long-play flow with the compositional ambitions of her acclaimed soundtrack work, Eiko’s expressions are epic and intimate. 2025 will never be the same!