East and West, Anna Domino’s debut mini-album released in 1984, stands as a quietly revolutionary entry in avant-pop. With just five tracks, this short yet richly textured record crafts a spacious, dreamlike world that’s intimate and elusive at once.

Recorded in Brussels with support from Virginia Astley, Blaine L. Reininger (of Tuxedomoon), and Luc Van Acker, the album feels both sparse and emotionally dense. Domino’s fragile, almost detached vocals float atop cold drum-machine beats and layered instrumentation low-key brass, shimmering guitars, and ambient washes resulting in a fragile, mesmerizing atmosphere.

Opening track “With the Day Comes the Dawn” uses tabla, off-kilter rhythms, and washed-out bells to usher you into a world that’s haunting and serene an environment where loneliness morphs into an art form. Her broken cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Land of My Dreams” eschews soul for introspection: stripped-down and melting with melancholic resignation.

On “Review,” Domino’s detachment shines as she recounts emotional exhaustion. Blaine L. Reininger’s violin drifts in like a ghost, shifting mood from pain to indifference, underscoring Domino’s autonomy.

Her lyricism quiet, elliptical, emotionally powerful reminds one of a walking rhythm that’s intimate rather than danceable. Domino uniquely melds solitude and subtle defiance, positioning herself less as an artist performing for others and more as a creator of her own world.

This EP laid a blueprint for generations of minimalist, emotionally resonant musicians who followed. Pitchfork’s retrospective likens it to The Velvet Underground & Nico of avant-pop a quiet classic that inspired those who discovered it to pick up a cassette recorder and follow their own muse.

East and West is an entrancing, fragile debut sparse yet resonant, intimate yet elusive. Anna Domino’s art-pop purveyed a fragile autonomy and poetic solitude that, decades later, remains quietly potent, beckoning listeners into its hushed, uncanny world.