Review: Orcas’ album ‘How to Color a Thousand Miles’

Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard. Photo by Molly Smith.

By Ljubinko Zivkovic, Rock At Night Amsterdam

Review: Orcas – How to Color A Thousand Mistakes – Release date – June 16, 2024

Don’t let the moody, brief opener “Sidereal” her fool you. Orcas, or the duo of otherwise accomplished solo multi-instrumentalists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard don’t go full-on ambient here, although they could easily do it, and have done it before.

Actually, on “ How to Color A Thousand Mistakes,’ their latest joint offering, the duo come up with some exquisite, guitar and vocals-driven, sometimes loud (sometimes not), very modern (pop) rock. Part of the credit possibly goes to the excellent production from James Brown, as he knows how to handle this type of music (Arctic Monkeys, Kevin Shields, Nine Inch Nails).

As is the case with any good piece of modern music, the devil’s in the details, and the duo prove the point with a layered, sophisticated sound, bringing in all the diverse experiences and sounds they have created so far, both separately or as a duo, creating one of the more interesting modern pop/rock albums so far this year.

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Benoit Pioulard:

Rafael Anton Irisarri

Orcas Bandcamp:

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Ljubinko Zivkovic

Ljubinko Zivkovic is a freelance writer/journalist from The Netherlands, who has previously worked as a journalist, diplomat and a translator. Music is his key writing interest.

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