Contact Wave: Powers / Rolin Duo
09.05.21
Co-hosted by Chris Kissel and Chuck Soo-Hoo, the twice-monthly dublab program Contact Wave enthusiastically celebrates the best experimental, avant-garde, psychedelic, and off-the-grid music crafted in L.A. and beyond.
This week’s episode features an interview and guest mix from Powers / Rolin Duo, the amazing Columbus-based folk/drone duo consisting of Jen Powers on dulcimer and Matthew Rolin on guitar. Their latest record, Strange Fortune, is out now on Astral Editions. Their trio record with Jason Gerycz, titled Lamplighter, is also out now. They shared this short bio with us:
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 Editions label, 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
Tracklist:
**Powers / Rolin Interview**
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin – Rotations – from “Lamplighter” (2021)
Powers / Rolin Duo – Drifts – from “Strange Fortune” (Astral Editions) (2021)
Les Filles de Illighadad – Surbajo – from “At Pioneer Works” (Sahel Sounds/Pioneer Works Press) (2021)
Natalie Jane Hill — Orb Weaver – from “Solely” (Dear Life) (2021)
Eight Point Star — Brand New Shirt – from “Eight Point Star” (VHF) (2021)
Johnny Coley — Teenage Lipstick Horses – from “Antique Sadness” (Sweet Wreath) (2021)
Turner Williams Jr. — Winter Wildflowers for Heidi – from “Let It Warp” (Trouble in Mind) (2021)
Fashion Pimps And The Glamazons — Jazz 4 Johnny – from “Jazz 4 Johnny” (Feel It) (2021)
Giant Claw — Mir-Cam Online – from “Mirror Guide” (Orange Milk) (2021)
Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi — Floorless Room – from “Yamawarau” (cachedmedia) (2021)
Lucy Liyou — You are every memory – from “Practice” (Full Spectrum) (2021)
Hali Palmombo — Loop 2 – from “Cylinder Loops” (Astral Editions) (2021)
Grouper — Unclean mind – from “Shade” (Kranky) (2021)
claire rousay — a kind of promise – from “a softer focus” (American Dreams) (2021)
Tristan Kasten-Krause — From Thin Air (ft. Lisel (Eliza Bagg)) – from “Potential Landscapes” (Whatever’s Clever) (2021)
Landon Caldwell — Expansions on the Theme From Water Body – from “Deep Strand” (Trouble in Mind) (2021)
