CD – Hibernate
The incorporeal beats of “Abstracts On Solitude” give birth to a peculiar ecosystem that burrows deep in our perception, feeding not only on external manifestations. With different releases under her belt – for labels such as Normal, Smallfish, Rural Colours and FBox Records – and with an interesting album project based on monthly releases for subscribers (Duodecim), Katie English, AKA Isnaj Dui, now arrives at Hibernate. This inspired label, specializing in the experimental, abstract and melodic, is a fitting home for the suave bass flute of this London musician, author and instrumentalist. English elegantly combines acoustic sounds with atmospheric patterns, adding in homemade instruments and delicate electronic sequences. The music features subtly docile sound insertions throughout the development of the six tracks. Full of creaks, it incorporates oriental lullabies and generates impressions of large uninhabited spaces. The melodies are always elegant and restrained, guided along gentle resonances that are pleasing in their reverberations, appearing alongside lovely insistent drones. The images evoked are rather mysterious and foggy, dictated by sometimes gloomy tones, elements that become soft and vaporous – but still very dreamlike – subtly tinged with small digital and glitch influences and swarming with shaky equilibriums and dissonances. The contrasts – however – are always mediated, reassembled in a very personal and refined score that never abuses the easy illusion of a simple dichotomous tension of elements.