In the beginning, there was… the electric guitar? On Sweet Release, Justin Adams and Mauro Durante’s second album together, they unearth ancient, elemental spirits that live half-hidden in the modern world. The two musicians come from divergent backgrounds, but are again proving to be a well-matched duo that can create music that culls from various traditions without landing squarely in any single one. In the title cut, Adams sings: “These strings, this drum, from another world they come,” which could be the thesis statement of this bracing, exuberant record.
British-born guitarist Adams was the son of a diplomat and spent some of his childhood in Egypt. Those years in North Africa seem to have imbued his musical outlook and led him to several partnerships with musicians from Africa, including producing albums from Mali’s desert-blues band Tinariwen, Algerian rocker Rachid Taha and dueting with Gambian fiddle player Juldeh Camara. Adams’ mastery of conjuring various colors from his guitar landed him a long-standing place with Robert Plant‘s Sensational Space Shifters.
Mauro Durante, who plays frame drum and fiddle, was born into a family that created the long-time Italian folk revivalists Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. Since Durante took the helm of the Salento-based group from his father (and formed by his aunt, journalist Rina Durante, in 1975), Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino have cross-bred their folkloric roots with other Italian traditions and contemporary ingredients.
The two musicians met while collaborating with Italian minimalist composer Ludivico Einaudi and quickly created Still Moving, which topped world-music charts and led to several international tours. With Justin Adams’ raspy deep vocals, the duo can evoke a raw electric-blues song, albeit one with an Italian frame drum punching out its rhythm. On several cuts, Durante’s tenor creates a sense of aching beauty that sounds like it’s coming from hundreds of years ago. By tapping into these old traditions, the duo find commonalities across continents.
Adams is not the kind of flashy guitarist who dazzles with hyper-fast runs up and down the fretboard; he uses the instrument to create textural chords that fill the room, making him a perfect partner for what otherwise would seem like spare instrumentation.
On “Ghost Train”, Adams barrels out with a heavily distorted blues-rock rhythm, bolstered by Durante’s hand-slapped drumming. Their contrasting vocal styles provide textural interest over the powerful, elemental beat. Adams’ guitar solo would send any rock fan into ecstasy, even as his playing on the next cut, “Wa Habibi”, is restrained and spare and takes advantage of the clearer unfuzzed characteristics of the electric guitar.
“Wa Habibi (My Beloved)” is an Arabic Christian hymn made famous by the Lebanese singer Fairuz. Here, Justin Adams’ reverby guitar-picking intertwines with the solemn vocals of Morrocan singer-songwriter Yousra Mansour of the band Bab L’Bluz and Durante’s evocative fiddle, which reflects southern Italy’s proximity to the cultures across the Mediterranean.
“Silver and Stone” starts with a slow, anthemic melody while Durante matches its intensity with his jangle-tinged hand drum. Adams’ husky whisper fills out the track and gives way to a solo that grabs the melody and takes off. The duo show the poignant side of their music on “Qui Non Vorrei Morire (I Don’t Want to Die Here)” with a crystalline guitar creating a whispy, melancholy atmosphere around Durante’s sweet singing.
“Tide Keeps Turning” has the duo turning heavy with Durante banging out a powerful rhythm on frame drum and Adams filling the sonic space with distorted chords and stinging fuzz-tone melodies. Trading vocals with singer-songwriter Felice Rosser, Adams sings “Heading on down south”, bringing the track deep into Americana for a gripping electric blues.
The longest song, “Aurora”, starts with Adams’s moody, unfuzzed electric untethered from a rhythm, along with Durante’s sustained fiddle acting as a drone. The spacious, unhurried introduction gives way to a lovely fingerpicked tune with Durante’s angelic singing tracing figures above.
On “Ithaca Return”, the two echo the ecstatic pizzica music from Durante’s home region of Puglia. In that tradition, musicians counter the poisonous bite of a mythical spider by getting its victims to dance out the venom. Fiddle and distorted guitar open together with a stately, deliberate theme, then suddenly shift into hyper-drive, urging each other on as they race to ever-mounting frenetic heights.
Sweet Release ends with “Santu Paulu”, which moves quietly on Adam’s intensely strummed chords reinforced by the deep bass thumping from a large frame drum. Durante’s vocals are extended out to create a drone effect that builds intensity, then Adams shifts his strumming to a higher register. The song continues to build while maintaining the same foundational rhythm.
Throughout the album, the two musicians create fully satisfying songs even if they use just one or two instruments. From vastly different cultures, the two musicians find, if not invent, common ground again and again. This rich second crop of songs from Justin Adams and Mauro Durante do not have an evident pedigree, but this immensely soulful and driving music comes from a deep place that makes it seem familiar even as it takes listeners on a new and thrilling journey.