Having relocated with her family to a small coastal community south of Melbourne, IKSRE is about to release a new sound bath. Titled, “In All Her Forms”, and a follow up to 2022’s “Awake Within The Dream”, taking inspiration from her new surroundings, the hour-long set uses water’s shifting physical states as a metaphor for transformation. The essential element making its presence felt throughout. 

“Lake Shore” is a shimmer of synergising drones and angelic harmonies that ripples, rapidly before fading into the field recorded surf of “Coral Sea”, where delicate chiming and plucked zither strings draw a darker mood. Suggesting the pull of deeper tides and currents. “Distant Waves” washes over the listener like a wordless lullaby, an ethereal siren’s lure. Keys cascade in slow, patient patterns on “Gentle Rain”. “Forest Stream” mixes fresh water trickling with ringing, singing bowl resonance and a booming, but calming bass pulse. The sparse, crystalline “Falling Snow” uses iron gongs and bells, heavy metals, to create something soft and soothing. “Ocean Wild” crashes and dives deeper again. A swirl of treated breakers serenaded by the echoed cries, calls of violin and cello ghosts. “After The Rain” builds a breeze from layered, hypnotising, healing vocals. The voice has always been a vital component in IKSRE’s music, giving it a very human core, and on this latest release it feels even more to the fore. “The Sun, The Waterhole” has arias that seem lifted, remembered from ancient devotionals, hymns and chants. “Desert Frogs Reawaken” demonstrates how closely the pieces are tied to nature and landscape, effectively acting as a diary for the habitat that IKSRE now calls home. Here, the titular amphibians clicking, rather than croaking. Their vibrations like the whispers of summoned sacred spirits. “The Source”, with struck gongs and tingsha, then signals the end of the ceremony.  

While divided into 12 parts, this symbiosis of composition and improvisation is intended to work as a whole. Seamlessly, slowly flowing, evolving, mapping a sonic space between new age and cosmic. Melodies emerging and dissolving, mirroring H₂O’s journey, the memory of all the shapes it has assumed. All it has touched. 

IKSRE’s “In All Her Forms” can be ordered from Bandcamp. This is the first IKSRE release to receive a vinyl pressing.