Back in mid-April, perhaps when it felt more like an end might be in sight, when the new abnormal was more new and more abnormal, a group of musicians under the umbrella of Katuktu Collective individually recorded nine tracks with a shared theme. The album is titled Isolate With I. It’s described as follows:
A compilation of music recorded entirely during the coronavirus pandemic in two parts, a dark and a half-light, messages in a bottle from our island to yours. Both parts are free downloads; if you hear something that resonates with you, please visit the individual tracks for more information and to support the artists directly.
This album is the first half, the dark half. (If you didn’t know the title of the second half, you might read the “I” as first person. It’s a Roman numeral one, in fact; the second album is Isolate With II.) The participants include C. Brickell, German Army, Fading Tapes, Danni Rowan, the Corrupting Sea, Aidan Baker, Anders Brørby, Brian Case, and Ekin Fil. Fil’s track, “Detour,” is a highlight, the underlying rumble like a train running fast, the intermittent patches of noise like echoes in a series of tunnels. It’s so stark, so precise, one could easily imagine that the piece isn’t electronic, and that she had scored it for strings and timpani.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/ekin-fil. The full album is available for free download at katuktucollective.bandcamp.com. More from Ekin Fil at ekinfil.com.