Points of Inaccessibility is an album with an origin that offers an effective contrast to the dilemmas posed by its internal theme. It all began with a chance face-to-face meeting between Ibero-American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri and Dutch media artist Jaco Schilp which took place at the MUTEK festival in Mexico City two years ago. The direct human connection and conversation that ensued led to the development of a project that revolved around ideas about how technology shapes perception in a world where connections between people are largely remote, mediated, influenced and even manipulated.
The two artists agreed to a residency at Uncloud, a non-profit art collective in Utrecht co-directed by Schilp that includes a studio housed inside what was formerly a forensic psychiatric clinic. It was there that Irisarri laid the foundation of the music we hear on the record using bowed guitars, pedals, and looping techniques which Schilp processed through point-cloud software generating abstract imagery in what is described as a state of constant flux. Referencing the concept of Poles of Inaccessibility – geographic locations defined not by their features but rather by their unreachable distance – the duo began to explore the paradox of alienation in a hyper connected world through sound and images.
What appears to be a fully connected network often produces a deeper kind of separation, one shaped by the filtering logic of the systems that mediate experience. In this sense, the digital sphere mirrors its geographic counterpart. We inhabit spaces saturated with signals, yet the possibility of genuine contact becomes increasingly remote.
The final form we hear on the album was shaped in Irisarri’s New York studio where he took the bowed guitar improvisations recorded in Utrecht and molded them with additional editorial input from fellow artist and frequent collaborator Abul Mogard and the addition of synth textures, bass strings, and vocal layers contributed by Karen Vogt. This process of “careful revision” and “sustained reworking” transforms a rich repository of raw sonic material into a potent listening experience. Points of Inaccessibility is no less than Irisarri at his most melodic, thoughtful, and transcendent.
Points of Inaccessibility asks whether connection is still possible within environments shaped by mediation and delay, or whether we have become isolated points within the very networks that promise proximity. What possibilities for relation persist within environments organized by algorithms and interruption? And how are we meant to understand presence when so much of it is constructed at a distance?
Points of Inaccessibility was released February 6, 2026, on limited edition vinyl LP & digital via Irisarri’s own Black Knoll Editions label. The album was mastered by Stephan Mathieu and features artwork by Jaco Schilp with design and layout by Daniel Castrejón.
Links: Bandcamp (LP/digital) | Rafael Anton Irisarri | About Uncloud
