Poor Isa

Poor Isa: let's drink the sea and dance

by Mark Sullivan
June 27, 2019

At first glance, Poor Isa is primarily a banjo duet. But the actual sound of the album belies any assumptions about how such a project should sound. As on their joint album When The Shade Is Stretched (Aspen Edities, 2017), Belgian banjo players Frederik Leroux and Ruben Machtelinckx tend to subvert the traditional style of the instrument. That album presented two solo recordings, but here the players truly collaborate. “Oceanfuls" opens the set with unearthly low drone sounds ...