Label Description: In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.
Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.
The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.
At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.
Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own.”
Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.
Abul Mogard: synthesizers, treatments
Rafael Anton Irisarri: electric guitars, Leslie speaker, treatments
Martina Bertoni: cello on “A Blue Descent” and “In a Quiet Radiance”
Andrea Burelli: violin and vocals on “In a Quiet Radiance”
Composed and produced by Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri.
“A Blue Descent” composed by Abul Mogard, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Martina Bertoni.
“In a Quiet Radiance” composed by Abul Mogard, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Andrea Burelli, and Martina Bertoni.
Recorded by Rabih Beaini and Lucas Brell
during a residency at Morphine Raum, Berlin, 18–20 March 2025.
Transformations and overdubs completed in Rome, New York, and Berlin, Summer 2025.
“Of Blessed Ages” recorded by Abul Mogard in Rome.
Additional recordings by Andrea Burelli and Martina Bertoni in Berlin.
Mixed by Abul Mogard in Rome, September–October 2025.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung, Bonn.
Lacquer cut at Schallplatten Schneid Technik (DE).
Pressed on BioVinyl at Optimal (DE).
Artwork by Marja de Sanctis
Photography advisor: Alessio Pizzicannella
Design and layout by Daniel Castrejón
Made in Germany
Many thanks to: Alessio, Daniel, Karen, Iulia, Marja, Matze and everyone at Morr Distribution, Stephan, all our friends and family.
Music For The Rest Of Us 