Strange Fortune by Powers / Rolin Duo

"Underground music is filled with all kinds of characters, personalities, and peculiarities. Rare are the musical/artistic soul mates who have forged life, as well as creative, partnerships.  Foundationally, the work of couples like Alice and John Coltrane or La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela set standards of artists who share a complete aesthetic worldview, in which the pair complement and lift each other to higher vistas, the newly created work completely collaborative and unable to be untangled from its divine union. More recently, soul mate musicians like Wayne Rogers and Kate Village, or Rick Brown and Sue Garner, continue in this seemingly impossible tradition, a lifetime of musical co-expression. Jen Powers and Matthew Rolin, as the Powers/Rolin Duo, are the latest, fully realized musical version of this unique dynamic. On their new album Strange Fortune, for the Astral Spirits sister label Astral Editions, the pair offers a sage-scented, instrumental love poem, which straddles the lines of psychedelic and folk idioms. Over the course of four extended tracks, including the sidelong “Amaranth,” showers of 12-string acoustic guitar and hammered dulcimer mix to dizzying heights as the two players weave in and out of each other's melodies, finishing each other's musical sentences. The sounds of the instruments commingle, yielding a cosmic sense of compatibility as if there is little distinction between the players. Over the past few years, the Powers/Rolin duo has spread its developments over a string of limited LP releases and hard to find cassettes. Strange Fortune, which was recorded live with few overdubs, feels like their first signature statement as a duo: it’s a deep listen, a bliss-inducing ramble through acoustic tonalities. So open up the windows, turn the volume up, and let the Powers/Rolin duo be the soundtrack to your summer and all the kaleidoscopic days ahead.“

- Steve Lowenthal