The Breakdown
The quality and concentration of ambient/classical leaning releases these days means that musicians need to create something with a little extra substance to make more than just a ripple. Well violist Isabel Pine has done just that with her exquisitely crafted debut for Kranky, ‘Fables’. After veering away from her expected pathway towards an orchestra’s string section and making her own way as a solo performer, Pine also made the move to the forested expanses of British Columbia. It’s from this point that her instrumental compositions, merging viola, violin, cello, double bass and electronics, really began to find their own voice.
Pine has released a string of tracks and EPs over this time, drawing cumulative inspiration from living amongst the wild snow and wilderness. In many ways ‘Fables’ could feel like the culmination of this sequence except that for this album she took her process of immersion one step further. Uprooting to an isolated cabin deep in the wilds with her instruments and recording equipment, Pine set out to explore new possibilities. Rather than simply referencing her surroundings in her music the question she set herself was “how it would sound if I recorded outside entirely, with the natural reverb and sounds of the environment in the recording from the very beginning”. Subtly and tenderly ‘Fables’ captures not just the magic but the meaning of this interaction.
If you want some nuts-and-bolts info, Pine shapes the album’s soundscape from minimal string arrangements, understated electronic adjustments and field recordings but it’s the ambient otherworldly suspension she creates from these raw materials which are crucial. ‘Fables’ is formed of fifteen short vignettes which connect like diary entries from her time through winter in the forest. Yes, the collection is immersive but the journey is deeply personal as well.
As the album unfurls, its cyclical momentum reveals itself through tender, recurring themes and delicately rendered sonic curves. The opening tracks perhaps hint of Pine’s settling into her life and creative task in the cabin. Wolves shivers into earshot, a quivering chamber-esque melody calling out as snatches of notes flash past. The eerie otherness continues with the quivering drone of Winnow, the song referring to separation of not wheat from the chaff but maybe the new self from old. With Untitled/Kindled/Waxing there’s more focused activity, Pine’s viola layers looping with the elegant Arvo Pärt beauty while the luminous Never Been Here Before is shaded with rustling movements and distant breezes.
Significantly such natural sounds are subtly absorbed in Pine’s outside music. These are not field recordings included to inform or prompt the listener, they are part of a living moment. On A Flickering Light the ripple of water and wind in the trees add to the anthemic beauty of this spiralling choral piece. The sombre progress of Perennial has short chirping viola notes echoing the distant bird song whereas West is more urgent: bowed rhythms; a hint of gathering storms; and the sharp clatter of human action to batten the tune down.
The shifts across all the vignettes sound almost imperceptible. They glide together for a cumulative effect with any variation often tonal. Moonlight is spooked by the deep sonorous grown of the double bass as the cello moans while Snow falls in slow motion to a four-note loop with echoes of a Sarah Davachi miniature. On ‘Fables’ range is clearly less significant than developing a coherent mood but the album really thrives on the narrative of Isabel Pine’s unfolding response to solitude.
The title track seems pivotal, reflecting a swing in her emotions, an absorption into being at one with all around her. From the most fragile viola notes, feelings swell towards a release of tension, her strings surging melodically with echoes reverberating in their wake. There is contentment here, a solace which permeates the tracks that follow until the album closes with the buoyant brightness of Butterfly Lands On A Flower. In this delicate, waking place you feel the seasons change and we leave Isabel Pine, having travelled somewhere extraordinary with her.
Get your copy of ‘Fables‘ by Isabel Pine from your local record store or direct from Kranky
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