43/80 by Samara Lubelski - Bill Nace Duo

Out in the world, in conversation, Samara Lubelski and Bill Nace are always listening. Samara is steadily attentive, she teases out, she leans forward, tunes in, one ear simultaneously alert to the record playing in the background, or the strange sound the dryer is making. Bill, a natural riffer, is wilder: his attention scatters, he gathers sensory information and loops back to deliver a newly synthesized slice of environment.

These ways of being show up in their individual work. As a duo the natural push and pull--the hearing and response--deepens and twists until it's difficult to tell where one instrument ends and the other begins. Samara, on violin, unfurls infinite seismometer-esque threads of sound; Bill goes wider, wraps around, envelops and expands.

Improvisation, generally speaking, can become a quest for dominance: A wrestling match, or worse, a shouting match. While technically improvised, Bill and Samara seem to be doing something else. They share a language, developed over many years of playing together. As Samara puts it, “having a shared vision that you're able to try and get [to] is way more exciting than actual improv.”

One might hear "43/80" as a sequel or sibling or mirror to the duo’s previous studio recording, a self-titled release from 2018. Each record creates an environ for the listener, but where the self-titled album lulls and haunts, the drone of "43/80" swarms. It’s heavier and closer (side one is, anyway), it’s rock ‘n’ roll performed by hypnotists. Bill plays a hollow two-stringed taishogoto, a bassier, more resonant instrument than the solid-bodied, more high-pitched taisho he’s been touring and recording with in recent years.

With Bill switching to electric guitar, side two is the more obvious heir to their first release, spacious, rife with gorgeous, crystalline tone, propelled forward by a gentle tension. Samara notes that Bill tosses her curveballs, which she doesn't mind swinging for. “Whatever Bill brings I’m down for it.” Bill says he doesn't really play with anyone like he does with Samara. “There’s a generosity there,” a willingness to meet the other half way. Listening in action opens up possibilities. “I don’t feel like the parameters are firm,” Samara continues. “They’re very open.”

-Margaret Welsh, 2024-

Three Lobed Recordings is a boutique record label that specializes all flavors of psychedelia. The label was started in 2000 and is largely operated by cats.

threelobed.com
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