ISQ – Animal
London-based vocalist and songwriter ISQ (Irene Serra) announces her fifth studio album ‘The Silence is Deafening’, arriving on 23rd October and previewed by single ‘Animal’, out 22nd May.
The befitting lead single is a rhythmic alt-pop tune that draws on the tension between different generations. Warm and determined, it sits with the complexity of a mother-daughter relationship. The clashes and the closeness, the misunderstandings that only years and perspective can untangle.
ISQ: “Animal is about the mother/daughter relationship in all its complexity; how it shifts, clashes, softens and deepens across time,” Irene explains. “What I once experienced as difference, I now see as bravery and resilience. It’s a very personal track, but I think it taps into something universal about mothers, daughters, and the sometimes messy way love evolves over time.”
After eight years away, ISQ returns with the meticulously created ‘The Silence is Deafening’ (out 23rd October) marking a significant shift in her sound – darker, guitar-driven and cinematic – sitting somewhere between alternative and Massive Attack. It is a record preoccupied with women’s lives; the ones lived loudly and the ones lived in careful silence:
“The songs on this album were a long time in the making,” Irene explains. “This is my attempt to make sense of a shifting world and of the elusive human condition – its unexpected beauty and moments of light, alongside the sadness, the quiet and the everyday violence it contains. It is a tribute to my mother’s resilience and to the countless women whose stories echo her own.”
Vocalist and songwriter Irene Serra has spent over two decades building something quietly singular within the UK’s contemporary music scene. Known more by word of mouth than by headline, ISQ is her original compositional project – music that reveals its full weight only in the rooms it was made for: intimate clubs, jazz venues and concert halls where Irene’s presence and the band’s collective intensity can truly breathe.
ISQ draws together a sophisticated jazz musicianship, alternative pop sensibilities and rich electronic textures. The current line-up of Richard Sadler (bass), Chris Nickolls (drums/electronics) and Luca Boscagin (guitar) counts credits across Neil Cowley Trio, Andy Sheppard and Cinematic Orchestra among its members, bringing both improvisational fluency and contemporary edge to the project.
Critically praised across her catalogue – from the TimeOut London Critics’ Choice ‘Too’ to the Clash Magazine-lauded ‘Requiem For The Faithful’ – Irene has built a devoted following over two decades of uncompromising work. This fifth studio album is the work of an artist who has always known exactly what she wanted to say, and is finally ready for everyone else to hear it.
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