Crisopa

Biography

Crisopa is the moniker of Madrid-based electronica producer Santiago Lizón, who began working under the name back in 2005. Bringing together influences as diverse as IDM, shoegaze, post-rock and classical, he released music on Madrid netlabels Plataforma-ltw, Persona-isla, Add-sensor and Escala before signing to US label n5MD in 2012. He released two albums for n5MD, Biodance (2012) and A Lucid Dream Kit (2015). Transhumante [Extended] (2018) is his first release for Hidden Shoal.

News

• Hidden Shoal in Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018 List!

  Hidden Shoal is incredibly honoured to have been selected as one of Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018. Textura is, in our opinion, the premiere new music magazine and favourite of the label team for unearthing and exposing new and exciting new music. This is the second time Hidden Shoal has been selected in Textura’s best labels list and as always we are nestled against some other very special labels, all of who you should check out.

  Now for a very brief and unnecessary acceptance speech – we are nothing without our incredible roster of artists, who continually amaze, inspire and surprise us. Thank you all!

   

   

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• Crisopa’s “Transhumante [Extended]” Out Now!

  We’re so excited to be able to announce the official release of Transhumante [Extended] by Spanish electronica producer Crisopa. This sublime album is available now via Bandcamp and all good third party stores. Stream the beautiful opening track ‘Bird Song Reincarnation’ via SoundCloud.

  “Oh my – this is gorgeous… Every track has something surprising and comforting, and its own unique atmosphere and personality, yet it all comes together to be a beautifully consistent and enjoyable album blending the new with the familiar” – [sic] Magazine

  Crisopa’s original 2017 release of Transhumante (via the Sound in Silence label) presented an immersive suite of deeply evocative and melodic ambient electronica. The new extended version of the album includes six beautiful new additions, bathing the listener in waves of ecstatic synth swells, textural loops and insistent rhythms. These surging, emotive tracks simultaneously summon forth aching nostalgia and a blissful state of hopefulness. Anyone who enjoys deep, vivid electronica in the vein of Boards of Canada, Manual and Hammock will find themselves right at home in Crisopa’s beatific compositions.

  All tracks from Transhumante [Extended] are available for licensing across film, tv, games, web and beyond. Contact us for more details.
  

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• Beautiful New Crisopa Single – ‘Expectorant Ballad’

  We’re very excited present ‘Expectorant Ballad’, the new single from the forthcoming album Transhumante [Extended] by Spanish electronica producer Crisopa. The track is available to stream over at SoundCloud and download via Bandcamp ahead of the album’s release on the 1st of May 2018.

  Crisopa’s original 2017 release of Transhumante (via the Sound in Silence label) presented an immersive suite of deeply evocative and melodic ambient electronica. The new extended version of the album includes six beautiful new additions, bathing the listener in waves of ecstatic synth swells, textural loops and insistent rhythms. These surging, emotive tracks simultaneously summon forth aching nostalgia and a blissful state of hopefulness. Anyone who enjoys deep, vivid electronica in the vein of Boards of Canada, Manual and Hammock will find themselves right at home in Crisopa’s beatific compositions.

  “Oh my – this is gorgeous… Every track has something surprising and comforting, and its own unique atmosphere and personality, yet it all comes together to be a beautifully consistent and enjoyable album blending the new with the familiar” – [sic] Magazine
  

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• Crisopa Signs to Hidden Shoal

  We’re very excited to announce the signing of Spanish electronica producer Crisopa to the Hidden Shoal roster. Santiago Lizón (aka Crisopa) produced one of our favourite albums of 2017, Transhumante, which was originally released on the wonderful Sound in Silence label. We’re honoured to not only have Santiago on board but also to be releasing the deluxe version of Transhumante which includes 6 additional new tracks.

  The new album will see release on the 1st of May with the first cut from the album out next Monday. Stay tuned!

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Reviews

• Crisopa “Transhumante [Extended]” Reviewed at Headphone Commute

  “I’ve been a fan of Hidden Shoal for over a decade now. Born in 2006 [right around the same time as I began to write about music], this Perth (Australia) based label has been appearing on my rotations, and end of year lists, with their experimental ambient output, shoegaze, post-rock, and everything in between. Releases from Memorybell, Antonymes, Slow Dancing Society, Markus Mehr, Sankt Otten, and Jumpel are among the standouts of the rich catalogue. Now, the label has signed Santiago Lizón for an extended version of his album as Crisopa, titled Transhumante, which originally appeared on Sound In Silence in 2017. This Madrid-based musician has previously released works for n5MD and has often shown up on my radar with his melodic ambient electronica from Biodance (2012) and A Lucid Dream Kit (2015). Transhumante is a complex piece of intelligent brain music, swirling with its synth patterns, dissonant chord progression, and uplifting downtempo rhythms that instantly remind me of the works by Boards of Canada, Plaid, and a bit of The Flashbulb [maybe it’s the vocoder?] soused in the organic ambiance of Hammock, Christopher Willits, and Tycho. I absolutely love the composite melodies, percussive intricacies, and sidesteps in harmonic scales, challenging the mind to stay awake to peel apart its thirteen gorgeous tracks. “The new extended version of the album includes six beautiful new additions, bathing the listener in waves of ecstatic synth swells, textural loops and insistent rhythms. These surging, emotive tracks simultaneously summon forth aching nostalgia and a blissful state of hopefulness.” If you missed the original release, this is a perfect opportunity for you to catch up with this brilliant album, to which you’ll find yourself returning to uncover newfound charm. Don’t forget to dig through the label’s past inventory – remember, there’s no such thing as “old music”.”

  – Headphone Commute

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• Crisopa “Transhumante” Reviewed at [sic] Magazine

  “I’m a minute in, and I already feel that this is an exciting record that’s going to take me some where new. Indeed, I was not expecting the trancy beats to burst into the synthy shoegazeness, nor the heavily vocodered vocals. And that’s only track 1. ‘I am the Lord of these Ruins’. Oh my – this is gorgeous. Those percussion sounds! Every track has something surprising and comforting, and its own unique atmosphere and personality, yet it all comes together to be a beautifully consistent and enjoyable album blending the new with the familiar.

  I love the packaging from Sound in Silence – it feels like you’re opening and holding something that has really been made lovingly with a great deal of care just for me. And that’s exactly what I got here from Crisopa.”

  – [sic] Magazine

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• Crisopa “Transhumante” Reviewed at Igloo Magazine

  “In late January 2017, Crisopa (aka Madrid-based Santiago Lizón) took a splinter break from n5MD and released Transhumante, an extended 7-track digital album. His previous two titles on n5MD were vibrant shoegaze-electronics etched with fuzzy melodic treasures that still echo to this day.

  With Transhumante, the Crisopa sound prevails and remains intact. This time around, the emphasis is on vocal hues that are lightly sprinkled throughout. Early Syntaks-era landscapes are shed, yet Crisopa plunges knee deep into classical moods as noted on “I Am The Lord Of These Ruins.” Subdued, downbeat rhythms flicker by as faint memories. It’s easy to recognize Lizón’s harmony building as revealed on “Serene Option” where soft pitter-patter beats and a tranquilized chorus line are vocalized in the background. Transhumante sees the artists’ past merge into the now, the vocoder warmed-up and slightly de-tuned (ie. “Bird Song Reincarnation”)—where (Crisopa) is from, the birds sing a pretty song (Yasume pun intended.)

  In all, Transhumante is a well crafted mini-album. Evolved (perhaps) as extensions to Biodance and A Lucid Dreamkit, Crisopa eschews solemn, melancholic, and instrumental streams of colorful sound. Lively and draped in emotively calm layers, the closing “Irradiating Nucleus” brings it all together in one tranquilized sonic collage.”

  – Igloo Magazine

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• Crisopa “Transhumante” Reviewed at Norman Records

  “Athens’ fairweathered Sound In Silence label has released some of the most kindly music of our last couple years, having slowly expanded their ambient roster outwards into beatwork and bravado. This release from Crisopa sees them break out of their cosy cocoon into the open, beginning with a declarative slice of coveted dance music that overcomes stifled layers and restrained climaxes in service of a big ol’ high.

  With a template of twinkling ambient music at its side, this record feels one foot in and the other out on what it wants to be. That’s fine, though: the record lunges beautifully between meditative half-melodies and beat tape tinkering, often imploding both into tracks like “I am the lord of these ruins”, whose textures meld together to create whole bodies of landscape. Those industrial-sized beats, pushed so far back they sound covered in fog, diverge from the swelling violins, parsed close to the listener against what start to feel like pure environmental sound.

  Crisopa is making totally serene music, here, and that’s all you need to know: it’s like someone’s taken an Ulrich Schnauss record and put it under the covers with a hot water bottle to its side. Amidst its obscured melodies and distant drumwork, ‘Transhumante’ beats a vital pulse.”

  – Norman Records

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Artist Photos

Music Videos

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Licensing

Crisopa’s music is  available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.