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'In Isolation' EP – Mink Freud (SBA #010)

The recent release of standalone track ‘Glass and Lasers’ by Mink Freud on See Blue Audio reintroduced an artist who had been quiet for some time, but only in terms of visibility. In fact, the north London producer was busy in the studio in the preceding months, and See Blue Audio presents the second in a series of new works from her with the ‘In Isolation’ EP, which includes the mighty ‘Hawksmoor’. It also marks the tenth release on the label.

You might think that the title ‘In Isolation’ refers to life during the COVID-19 pandemic, but these tracks were actually conceived and recorded before coronavirus struck. Feelings of disconnection, loneliness and isolation have become part of the fabric of city life; confinement simply amplified them. In this way, ‘In Isolation’ has captured the zeitgeist of these strange times in an unintended but profoundly relevant way. There’s also a strong sensation of winter about the three tracks that make up this EP, and not just in the sense of the hard days and colder nights, but in the bleak, almost Gothic, perspective the cruellest season can induce. This provides another intriguing juxtaposition as summer temperatures rise and climate change moves closer into view.

The opening track, ‘Everyone’s Indoors’, uses a simple piano refrain as the beat and a rich jazzy bassline as the rhythm to lay a foundation for brooding electronics that move like shifting sands across the track. This is the sound of being trapped behind drawn curtains as the rest of the world continues its journey without you. Elements of urban styles like dubstep can also be heard seeping into the music.

‘Chrome’ follows drawing on the artist’s influences from downtempo electronica and IDM. With its meandering melodies, lo-fi rhythms and air of sombre calm, it provides some tranquillity after the more frenetic pace of ‘Everyone’s Indoors’ and sets the scene for ‘Hawksmoor’.

Over seven minutes in length and based around organ-style chords, this beatless soundscape of shadowy ambience loses itself and the listener in space and time. Delicate notes appear like little sparks of light as the music ebbs and flows before finally coming to some kind of rest. There’s something remarkably London about ‘Hawksmoor’ and it’s not just the title, which refers to the six baroque-style churches that the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor built around the city in the 18th century. It’s this sense of mystery and wonder that draws people to such a vast metropolis, and then become lost in a world so much larger and unfathomable than we can ever truly comprehend. With this come a strange kind of comfort.

With ‘Hawksmoor’ and the ‘In Isolation' EP in total, Mink Freud has shown herself to be an artist of distinction and with a musical vision that accepts no limits.