Antigone by Eiko Ishibashi
#16
A lush, mythical, and quietly apocalyptic album, with boundless details to unpack. Truth be told, some of the best orchestration of 2025 can be found on this album - the way she layers her vocals with recordings of traffic instructions and twisted synths on opener “October” is genius. There’s a languidity and warmth to the music that calls to mind mid-70’s Joni Mitchell when she began to experiment with jazz - with occasional interjections from Americana, such as the pedal steel-inspired accordion on “Coma.”
“Mona Lisa” is, lyrically, a very important glimpse into the philosophy of Antigone. It admonishes modern detachment from human suffering, as genocide is “glimpsing through each day.” There is also a lot of disarmingly chilling imagery on many of the tracks, like on Coma (“This is your grid, watched by the security camera/You still have some time/to be a survivor in Eden”) and “October” (“Ashes fall in August/In October, the blood shines”). But all the while, particularly on the jazzier cuts like the title track, Eiko’s presence on the album feels glowing and warm.