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Isola LP1: An Introduction

Isola is Ivana Carrescia, an artist and synthesist now based in the farmlands of West Virginia. Her first release EP1 on Godmode – ”another star-making house debut” wrote Resident Advisor’s Andrew Ryce – paired her glassy vocals and musique concrète arrangement style with minimal house and dub techno reminiscent of early Chain Reaction releases. “It’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like you’re dancing and floating all at once,” wrote Pitchfork’s Philip Sherburne.

For Isola, there is music hidden in every sound around us – the howl of the wind, the whirr of traffic, the blank hum of a refrigerator. LP1, which arrives April 28, is both a continuation and departure – somehow more focused and more adventurous than before. Each song explores the giddy side of falling in love – all the little moments when you feel it setting in but don’t want to ruin by saying anything. It’s all set to the sumptuous microhouse sound that’s become Isola’s signature, with hints of Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas, Steve Standard’s Strafe, and the tickled arpeggiations of Suzanne Ciani’s music for Buchla.

Carrescia worked closely across all nine tracks with Godmode co-founder Nick Sylvester, the producer behind the label’s breakouts like Channel Tres and Yaeji. LP1 is the first release on Smartdumb, Sylvester’s brand-new outlet since departing Godmode in late 2022. Smartdumb is, according to Sylvester, “a home for music that starts with a question mark and ends with an exclamation point.”

Artist: Isola
Title: LP1
Label: Smartdumb
Date: 28 April 2023

Tracklisting:
01 Last Winter
02 Too Soon
03 Red Balloon
04 Aquarius
05 Heaven
06 In the Dead of Night
07 For Thee I Sing
08 Prayer
09 Sundowner

ISOLA is

Ivana Carrescia

an artist and synthesist

from the desert of las vegas

now based in the farmlands of west virginia

1. smartdumb.info