Raymond Raposa—the singer-songwriter who recorded beneath the title Castanets—has died on the age of 41. Raposa’s longtime label Asthmatic Kitty confirmed the information earlier in the present day (July 30) by way of a post on Twitter. The assertion was supplied to the label by Raposa’s household. “It’s with nice sorrow that the household of Raymond Raposa announce his passing in the present day,” they wrote. “Raymond was a beautiful son, brother, uncle, buddy, and musician. He will probably be drastically missed.” A reason behind demise was not revealed. Discover the complete put up under.
Born Raymond Byron Magic Raposa on January 22, 1981, Raposa launched six studio albums beneath his Castanets moniker. All of his LPs had been issued by Asthmatic Kitty—the label based in 1999 by Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Raposa’s debut Castanets LP, 2004’s Cathedral, launched his spare however intimate track craft; it additionally achieved vital acclaim throughout the impartial music sphere.
Castanets launched 5 further full-lengths over the following decade. Raposa’s sophomore album First Gentle’s Freeze arrived in 2005, adopted by 2007’s Within the Vines. He created his 2008 LP Metropolis of Refuge throughout a three-week interval of solitude, recording in a Nevada motel. In 2009, he issued Texas Rose, the Thaw, and the Beasts. In 2011, labored with Sufjan Stevens to attain Kaleo La Belle’s documentary Past This Place. His ultimate solo entry as Castanets entry, Decimation Blues, got here out in 2014. Earlier this yr, Raposa launched Bond Wire Cur beneath the title Raymond Byron.
Raposa’s sound was usually described as “different nation” or “freak-folk,” however his compositions steadily integrated unlikely devices for the style, corresponding to organ, synthesizer, and saxophone. Aquarium Drunkard as soon as referred to Raposa’s beloved debut album as “a robust work of skeletal people and dread,” although his work persistently subverted expectations. On the Decimation Blues monitor “Inform Them Memphis,” as an illustration, Raposa filtered his gritty twang by means of a vocoder.
Earlier in the present day, Raposa’s buddy and collaborator Sufjan Stevens posted a tribute to the late artist on his Tumblr account. “Raymond Raposa handed away yesterday,” Stevens wrote. “He was a vivid star, a very good buddy, and an ideal musician. It was all the time such a pleasure and a fierce non secular journey to work with him. Heavy hearts and deep sorrows over right here. Ray, could your soul glimmer brightly on the opposite aspect! And will perpetual gentle shine upon you. I like you.”
