Eiko Ishibashi’s Antigone is her first vocal and lyric-based work since 2018’s The Dream My Bones Dream. This record shows dystopian imagery and existential reflections inspired by the tragic Greek heroine Antigone. Ishibashi’s serene vocals and meticulously layered compositions create a bittersweet exploration of humanity’s fragility and crises.
The album draws heavily from Sophocles’s Antigone, focusing on climate collapse, genocide, and societal decay into its lyrical fabric. Tracks like “October” and “Coma” juxtapose unsettling imagery such as ashes falling, blood shining with lush instrumentation. Ishibashi’s ability to deliver these with calm restraint amplifies their emotional impact.
Eiko Ishibashi collaborates with an impressive ensemble, including Jim O’Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Marty Holoubek, and Kalle Moberg. The album integrates elements of pop, funk, jazz, ambient, electronic, and musique concrète. Standout tracks like “Trial” feature Pat Metheny-inspired grooves disrupted by thunderous bass lines, while “Coma” incorporates Moberg’s accordion to evoke a lonesome country-western feel. The production is immaculate, with Ishibashi herself contributing piano, Rhodes keys, and synths.
The lyrics are metaphorical. On “Nothing As,” the album’s most stripped-back track sung entirely in English, Ishibashi reflects on grief and existential ennui with heartbreaking simplicity. Elsewhere, she uses gallows humor to highlight humanity’s nonchalance toward global suffering. For instance, the title track juxtaposes laughter in a graveyard with the specter of death enveloping a dinner table.
Critics have lauded Antigone for its unflinching yet hopeful approach to apocalyptic themes. Its ability to balance despair with moments of stirring beauty has been described as unsettling and transformative. Fans on platforms like Reddit have echoed this sentiment, calling the album “extraordinary” and “astonishing.”