Poor Isa is the duo of Belgian guitarists Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux who found each other in improvisation and sonic exploration. They first collaborated on projects such as Linus + Skarbø/Leroux (with Norwegian drummer Øyvind Skarbø) and a two solo banjos performance (when the shade is stretched, Aspen, 2017). Machtelinckx and Leroux do not play banjos in familiar ways, but in alternative tunings, with preparations and additional attributes, creating otherworldly minimalist soundscapes. These sparse soundscapes, with the distant and ritualist percussive sounds of woodblocks, are rich in silence and shadow and flirt with the familiar and the spiritual, but always ask enigmatic kōans.