Tomas Jirku

Touching The Sublime

Tomas Jirku began his career in the golden era of minimal and glitch techno, helping to define the genres through releases on Alien8, Force Inc., Klang Elektronik, and Traum. Over the past two decades, Jirku has built a strong repertoire with his exploratory approach to music, experimenting across genres to develop a sound he can call his own.

The album is available in the following formats:
2x12" gatefold black vinyl, limited edition CD, and digital formats at Bandcamp.

The album is accompanied by a limited edition photo book, where, as an accomplished photographer, Jirku has captured the landscapes and vistas that have been his inspiration. The book can be ordered through Bandcamp.

About the Album

Touching the Sublime is the culmination of this work, with material transformed through performance, experience and introspection. Inspired by his explorations of the remote wilderness that surrounds his home in Vancouver, Canada, Jirku evokes the philosophical concept of the sublime, where an overwhelming experience of awe confronts us with the limits of our rational minds.

The album is a synesthetic auditory expression of Romantic era prose and stories of early alpinism. Bringing epic orchestral compositions and intimate guitar passages together with Jirku’s unique sense of space and texture, “Touching the Sublime” draws from his most important collaborators and influences to create a uniquely personal result.

Reviews

"Canadian minimal veteran Tomas Jirku has been a little quiet of late, but now he makes a welcome and unexpected return with something quite different for Silent Season. You can hear echoes of his earlier work in the soundscapes he's sculpted across Touching The Sublime, as high-definition sonic manipulation draws on his experience and eye for detail in wielding music technology, but rather than creating pointillist rhythmic structures, he's more concerned with billowing clouds of ambience. It's easy to draw parallels with the likes of Tim Hecker, but there's space for more techno-oriented productions in the midst of the maelstrom. Epic in scope and powerfully rendered, this is an album that will feed your head for a long time to come."
~ Juno Records

"Just bought the 2xLP at Juno but i couldn't wait until the package arrived to be able to listen to it so i got the DL too. This totally fantastic album will take you on a journey way beyond your imagination and i for one can't wait to put my headphones on and immerse myself in these meticulously crafted soundscapes and just drift far far away.
~ Finn of Tomland

"The secret basso discussions of snow covered majestic mountain tops, echoing through the ether. Touching The Sublime indeed, this is a remarkable release - powerful, moving and enormous. Even better in 24bit goodness which is how it should be heard and felt. Stunning. Favorite track: The Iliad & The Odyssey."
~ Pete Srdic

"What you can find here is only a residual image of classical dub techno. This piece of art is like a geographic area you can travel through with all its panoramic grandeur and uneasy paths. Its loaded with complex shifts of audio tectonic and sometimes cold and uncomfortable vistas. If you like explorative electronic music that thinks out of the box, grab some good pair of headphones and take a walk through these soundscapes."
~ In.Visible.Generator

"Enormous in scope, outstanding in execution, wonderful sound design, thoughtful but still completely visceral. A hugely ambitious release that has been fully realised. My congratulations to the artist and the label for delivering a brilliant work."
~ Ben Allanson

Album Credits

Written and produced by Tomas Jirku, Vancouver, BC
With support from Nicole Goodman, Trevor Juras and Concettina Laalo
Recorded at Naturhaus and mixed at Deep Blue

Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering
Photography and design by Tomas Jirku
Vinyl distributed by Juno Records
Digital at Bandcamp
[SSV18] 2020