Isnaj Dui: Laapiu
Hard Return

Katie English follows her magnificent (if we do say so ourselves) textura full-length Bright Star with another mesmerizing display of her Isnaj Dui artistry, this time a single-track digital EP of twenty minutes duration. Issued on Hard Return, a UK label specializing in “repetitive / persistent music,” Laapiu is concept-free, though English does clarify that the piece was designed to “lull the listener into a slightly hypnotic state,” with the material punctuated by occasional glitches to prevent the listener from lapsing too deeply into a drowsy state.

The material is instantly recognizable as Isnaj Dui the second pitch-shifted bass flute appears and the woodwinds-and-electronics timbres settle into position. Momentum is present though not tied to an explicit time signature; instead, the music lurches steadily forth in a drone-like daze with bass flute the centre around which other elements constellate. The electronic glitches and flute timbres respectively remind me of Raster-Noton recordings of yore and, strangely enough, Jon Hassell and his two Fourth World Volume releases, Possible Musics (1980) and Dream Theory in Mayala (1981). For the first two minutes, interjections of static and smears pepper the gently drifting pulse until the flute enters, its soft whistle murmuring atop its rumbling base much as Hassell's electronically altered horn did decades ago. Similar to those earlier recordings of his, Laapiu exudes a ceremonial, out-of-time character that makes it feel both ancient and newly born. However modest the piece is in its aspirations, it's entrancing nonetheless and trademark Isnaj Dui.

February 2022