In
Conversation with
‘
Isnaj Dui’
A
little background:
I originally met Isnaji Dui aka Katie through the efforts of my good
buddy, Chris Cook aka Hot Roddy / Same Actor and as he played me
some of her stuff, I was left breathless by the sheer beauty off it.
This was a classically trained artist who was creating experimental
electronica music using a Flute where instruments are looped live and
short samples created on the spot.
In a way, it kind of reminded me of my good buddy Bela in her experiments
With her instruments expect in contrast to Bela, Katie’s experiments are
Certainly more floaty and certainly make sense when you are in a mood
during the middle of the night staring at the moon.
Katie advises since her debut release in March 2006, she has being busy on the
Live circuit since the debut release in March 2005, Isnaj Dui has been busy
on the live circuit, revoking much interest from fellow experimental electronica
artists for her unique blend of acoustic instruments and electronically
manipulated effects.
She also advises that the track DulcImprov was included on
Disco_r.dance Volume 1 in November 2006. Catoctin from
the Sequence EP appeared on the Wire Tapper 15 in June 2006.
Isnaj Dui currently has three albums out on her own FBox Records
and the 3" EP Amacrine was released on Smallfish Records in June
2007; all releases are available at www.fboxrecords.co.uk
Regards to Chris for the introduction here and also Katie of course for the interview
And of course the music. It has barely left my mp3 player since I bought it.
Katie’s own myspace.com can be found here
http://www.myspace.com/isnajdui
Now that’s recommendation for you!
Cheers
Andy N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what’s happening at the moment?
Things are ticking along nicely at the moment; I had two releases very close
Together over the summer, both of which seemed to go down
well... I've also been
Working on a few collaborative projects with various
artists which is great fun and
Certainly has an effect on what I do within my solo work.
Setting Sun:
Can you tell us next a little bit about the history of ‘Isnaj Dui’ for example
what
started you off etc or as I like to say sometimes who fired the starting pistol?
Isnaj Dui
I've been writing electroacoustic music for many years
now. I was classically trained on
the flute and went on to study electroacoustic music in
1999. I've always found that
although the flute on first glance seems quite limited,
it actually has an incredible
range of sonorities available that lend themselves very
well to electronic manipulation.
After studying electronic music at university I decided
to release some of my work that
had built up over the years and begin performing the
pieces live. The debut album is
a collection of work over about three years, subsequent releases
have come about
as and when I have new material written.
Setting Sun:
Music wise, what are your influences and what are you listening to at the
moment?
Isnaj Dui
I remember seeing the Balanescu Quartet playing their own versions of Kraftwerk
tunes
when I was around 12 years old and that had a great
effect on me - to hear a string
quartet playing electronic music, but not electronically!
Others include James Hardway,
Brian Eno, and many modern classical composers such as
Arvo Part and
La Monte Young. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of
shoegaze, must be the weather!
Setting Sun
It is great to see also that you play gigs too, how do gigs compare to your
studio
based recordings? Is their one you prefer over the other?
Isnaj Dui
The reasoning behind my recording is that they are as close to a live
performance as
possible. The whole live process is very organic with
nothing pre-recorded, I have
found that this is a nice way to work as I'm kept on my
toes and the audience always
gets something different each time I play. I don't prefer
either one over the other, live
performance puts me on the spot so I have to think quick
whereas with recording I
sometimes get bogged down in tiny details. However, it is
nice with recording that I
can create loops of different lengths within the same piece,
which I can't currently do
live. I think this is particularly important with
recordings as where in the live performance
you play and then it's gone, the recording can be
listened to in great detail over and
over again so needs that bit more variation.
Setting Sun:
I have also found it interesting to see you run your own record label
Fbox records. Can you tell us a little bit about this
too?
Isnaj Dui
I started FBox Records as a way of releasing my own work in early 2005.
The plan is to introduce more acts to the line up over
the next year or so,
having tried a few approaches to releasing my own
recordings I now feel
more confident to deal with other artists' work.
Setting Sun:
I have being really listening to your lovely recently released album on Fbox
records ‘Patterns in Rocks’ which is a wonderful CD
without for all of it’s
floaty atmospheres and dynamics, I think my favourite two
tracks on it are
‘I should never’ and ‘just as the circle did’ – can you
tell us a little bit more
about these tracks.
Isnaj Dui
'I Should Never' came about earlier this year, I was actually
quite scared of playing it live as some of the tones are
quite unstable
and clash easily, it's a lot more stable now... It has
ended up sounding
like a twisted folk song in a way, quite dark and
brooding.
'Just As The
Circle Did' has gone through quite a few mutations over
about a year. It uses the flute through a tremolo to
create the
bleepy sounds, I really enjoy playing it live as it
builds up so gradually.
Setting Sun:
The artwork is also interesting which I think has a nice symbolism
with the title of the CD ‘Patterns in Rocks’ – can you
tell us where
the idea for that came from.
Isnaj Dui
FBox graphic designer James English writes: Seismic shifts
which are graphically represented by changes in the
leading of
the vertical lines, a typographic idea that will continue
in future
FBox releases. These typographic ideas correspond to the
paper
constructions, which represent the juxtaposing ideas of
digitally
manipulated images combined with handmade craft, which is
also
suggested in the form of the music in it's
electroacoustic construction.
Setting Sun:
The name ‘Isnaj Dui’ is also interesting – what is the inspiration behind it?
Isnaj Dui
It's actually a pretty boring story, I typed some random letters onto
the computer keyboard in an attempt to come up with an
album title
and Isnaj Dui is an approximation of what came up. It is
the title of the
debut album and as I didn't have an artist name at the
time, it kind of
stuck, thanks mainly to the Smallfish listings!
Setting Sun:
What plans do you have next? Do you have any more releases planned etc?
Isnaj Dui
I've recently been writing some new material following on in a similar
vein to recent releases. Some of the new work adds a more
percussive
element to counteract the flowing flute sounds. I'm also
looking at writing
using visual patterns as the basis of score, taking an
image and creating
melodic and harmonic lines based on it's movement. I'm
hoping there
shall be another release early next year.
Setting Sun:
Anyway, a few lighter questions to finish off with. Firstly, can you
tell us what would be your dream job if you were not a
musician?
Isnaj Dui
I've always had a choice between music and painting so would probably
go for that. I do actually still paint when I have the
time but I don't think
I'll make my fortune with it!!
Setting Sun:
What would you like to be doing when you are 60?
Isnaj Dui
Still writing and performing live.
Setting Sun:
Lastly, what will you be doing when you are 60?
Isnaj Dui
Probably still working full time if the pension age keeps going up!!