Irezumi (2) ‎– Endurance

Very emotional album. I started listening to this album and then by the 3rd song I had briefly looked into the backdrop of the details from the book Endurance with a synapse of some of the highlights of the amazing story of that "expedition". With that story fresh in my mind and putting myself in their shoes as this album went on the album took on a life of it's own. It became not only a ambient piece but a soundtrack to the entire story. Gentle radio transmission statics became human cries of help. It's hard to think of this album without thinking of that story now. Whether I can appreciate this cd without thinking about the story somberly is tough. What a story this cd supports. Human endurance. For the new generation of ambient producers this could be a benchmark. For them to create a soundtrack for a story as if it was a director bringing a story to life through video. This is a special cd no doubt. There is hope throughout the cd's tones that does save it from being overly somber. Some uplifting melodies here and there. my only fear is that because it is so visually supporting as an ambient lover, can I be able to listen to this and drift without thinking of the story. To be continued for me. I still have it as a 5/5 rating because its that different and impressive in a different way than anything before

It is worth paying an honored attention for Manuel Mesdag, who could easily enter to the competition of the greatest ambient artists with his confident and beautifully spiritualized first album Endurance, limited to 1000 copies. Manuel was born in 1985 in France, and even during his young ages he was pretty interested in jazz, rock and classical music (he was mostly amazed by the scores), and as a big booby he was already crazed about the actual house hits. 2006 was the year of his first deep house work, and the label was that Soulstar that can be proud of great compilations such as Latin Soul Fusion and A Lounge Supreme. After then, he composed a few tracks at Groove Baby, but these were released in digital format only. Meanwhile, Mesdag got very good friends with an other style: ambient. In 2007, he got in touch with Hana and Asmorod in Japan, and the result of this meeting was a brand new label and its first release - Endurance.
In order to distance himself from his deephouse project, the guy picked up a new artist name. It is not so surprising: Endurance opens such a window in your mind that is much deeper and more complex than the easily understandable house music. Since the sound of the album was inspired by the Ernest Shackleton’s tragic Antartic expedition, the whole journey has a quite dark, cold and sometimes restless mood which represents the melancholy, the beauty but the instructability too of the night and the darkness. These textures embrace this generally calm and innocent world that Endurance has. Although it may be misunderstood, you still can hear a "winter-ambientish" atmosphere, where you can even smell the snow in your face and see it falling down gently. In spite of that, the temperature of Irezumi's sound is definitely not bleak. Winter, which is usually attributed with estranged and meaningless life in literature, philosophy and fine arts, appears now as a gorgeous, timeless landscape. Low and high tunes are alternated, and surrounded by predictable, yet fascinatingly extended loops. Moreover, you can recognise Manuel's advance in classical music, too.
Endurance comes in a deluxe six-fold digipak edition with tantalasing artwork by Skyhigh. After such a great debut, we all can be curious about the next step of Snowblood - and Irezumi as well.

It's a little bit simplistic to start of with a comparison, but here it is. Irezumi's debut long player is reminiscent of Biosphere at his most regal, sombre and deep. This is gorgeous stuff, a multilayered ambient masterpiece, and it's no mistake that the reviews on Discogs to date rate it a 5. The tracks slowly envelop the listener into another dimension and flow into each other, a closed loop sound cycle that is best listened to from start to finish with the lights out at any volume. Loud is best. Since this is a limited edition, you should get a copy now before it's too late.