Poor Isa - Dissolution Of The Other [Aspen Edities 017]

Scheduled for release via the Belgian special interest imprint that is Aspen Edities on September 1st, 2k23 is "Dissolution Of The Other", the sophomore album outing by the duo known as Poor Isa. Comprised of Ruben Machtelinckx and Fredrik Leroux the duo once again relies on the quite unusual instrumental setting of banjo and woodblocks to lay down two extended pieces adding up to a combined playtime of 34 minutes on this one, capturing a stripped down, inward-looking and almost folksy feel which, albeit rich in texture and emotions, relies on a relatively limited set of musical ideas which are slowly and consistently formed, bent, executed and repeated in a meandering, comforting and highly naturalistic fashion in the more banjo-focused opening piece "Figures" whereas the subsequent "Drifter" shifts to a sparse, yet somewhat polyrhythmic approach which evokes memories of the somewhat regular irregularity of water droplets hitting surfaces in a spatially limited, yet subsurface and micro-cavity like environment with a very specific acoustic quality, later accompanied by vibrating drones oozing with unsettling tension in a well nocturnal manner. Intredasting.