Beach Sloth

Isnaj Dui - Abstracts On Solitude 7.4

               Isnaj Dui manages to take the lonely sounds and give them new life. What captivates is how carefully Isnaj Dui edits the work. One gets the feeling of a constantly evolving sound, growing ever larger track by track. Each track grows off of the previous one, building or reducing as needed. 

Sounds slowly enter into the fray after the introduction in the opening track ‘Edit’ which is Zen-like in its charming simplicity. ‘Nature’ expands upon ‘Edit’. Now the sound is fleshed out into a full ecosystem, whereas before it was very alone. For a change from these mellower pieces is the tension-filled ‘Peripheral Motion’. We hear only little snippets of sound on the extremely pitched plucks. Eventually these plucks melt away revealing the drone of ‘Melting Wave’ which returns to the move comfortable sounds of the beginnings. Plucks are still present but they keep time, they do not threaten. My favorite is the longest track ‘The Last Will Become a Darker Grey’ which takes the interest in classical forms to a new extreme. With more space to spread out one gets lost in the hushed drones which at times get rather elegant. 

Overall this is a comforting album. The closer shocked me a bit as the editing on this particular track is a bit jarring compared to what preceded it. Still, once taken as a whole, it makes sense that Isnaj would want to ebb and flow with her sound, making the listener comfortable before she introduces tense environments. ‘Abstracts On Solitude’ is a successful blend of new and old takes on electro-acoustic music.