There’s something quietly subversive about the way K Abby Jasper approaches ‘Separate the Sage’. Instead of meeting stress, uncertainty and modern overload with outright anger, Joey Fasolino filters them through something more elusive that is part indie folk confession, part ambient experiment, and part private ritual.
The title-track from his three-song Separate the Sage EP feels especially personal because it was built almost entirely by Fasolino himself. He wrote, recorded and mixed the song independently, and that sense of complete authorship gives it an intimacy that suits the subject matter.
At its core, the track deals with the feeling of struggling to keep pace with a world that seems determined to move faster than the people living inside it. He turns that pressure inward, questioning his surroundings while also searching for some kind of spiritual movement beyond them.
Acoustic textures provide a familiar entry point, but the singer-songwriter rarely allows the song to settle into straightforward folk territory. Instead, sounds seem to blur and reshape around the edges, with ambient layers and unusual production choices giving the track an almost dreamlike instability.
The title itself is also wonderfully peculiar, playing with the image of casting some kind of mystical defence against the demands of contemporary economic life. There’s humour buried inside that concept, but also frustration and genuine exhaustion. He seems to be asking whether retreat, reflection and spiritual growth can become acts of resistance in themselves.
In all, ‘Separate the Sage’ feels peaceful without ever becoming entirely comfortable. There’s sunlight in it, but also shadows between the trees. And here, K Abby Jasper creates a strange little clearing inside of it; offering somewhere to stop, question the noise, and perhaps remember there are other ways to measure progress.