Orcas

As Orcas, minimalist composer/producer Rafael Anton Irisarri and ambient pop singer/songwriter Benoît Pioulard, make the most of their skill with delicate atmospheres and memorable melodies. On their 2012 self-titled debut, Orcas captured the misty beauty and mystery of the Pacific Northwestern scenery that surrounded them with rich yet hushed electro-acoustic textures; on 2014's Yearling, they gave their music more structure and a majestic scope. When they returned a decade later with the cresting and sighing songs of How to Color a Thousand Mistakes, Orcas fit into the 2020s shoegaze and dream pop revival perfectly. The pair first met in late 2009, when Irisarri was the co-curator of Seattle's Decibel Festival and booked Pioulard to play the electronic and digital arts weekend. After the show, they stayed in touch and started making music that evolved from instrumental experiments to more structured songs with vocals. Naming themselves for one of the Pacific Northwest's most distinctive apex predators, Orcas' first release was a January 2011 cover of Broadcast's "Until Then" dedicated to that group's late singer Trish Keenan. The single also appeared on the duo's self-titled debut album, which appeared in April 2012 on Morr Music. Orcas was hailed for its striking mix of melodies and textures, and Pioulard and Irisarri spent much of 2012 playing shows in Europe and North America in support of the album. Irisarri and Pioulard recruited Telekinesis drummer Michael Lerner and composer/guitarist Martyn Heyne (a live member of Efterklang) to give more depth to Orcas' next album. The sweeping atmospheres of April 2014's Yearling were inspired in part by the mood and music of Twin Peaks (around this time, the band also recorded a version of "Into the Night" from the cult classic TV show's soundtrack). In the decade after Yearling, Orcas' members concentrated on their solo careers. Along with working as a mixing and mastering engineer at his Black Knoll studio, Irisarri issued moody albums such as 2016's A Fragile Geography and 2020's Peripeteia. Meanwhile, Pioulard's output included ambient excursions like 2019's Avocationals as well as the homespun ambient pop of 2016's The Benoît Pioulard Listening Matter and 2023's Eidetic. Orcas returned in 2024, first with an April cover of the Church's "Under the Milky Way" and then with their third album, July 2024's How to Color a Thousand Mistakes. Bringing in Slowdive's Simon Scott, Mono's Dahm Majuri Cipolla, and Heyne, among others, Pioulard and Irisarri put the spotlight on the project's shoegaze leanings as well as the major life events that occurred since they last collaborated.
© Heather Phares /TiVo

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