Loren Connors & Alan Licht - At The Top Of The Stairs

The guitar wielding duo mark 30 years of collaboration with the release of an eighth record together that features two single-sided live pieces recorded in 2018. Three decades is a long time to be working with the same person and still finding new avenues of inquiry and variations of expression, but here we are. At the Top of the Stairs is a formidable performance, an expert divination of light and shade that effortlessly allows space for both player, Connors' haunted blues dovetailing with the ghostly atmospherics of Licht in ways that they might not reach alone. There's an especially creepy dynamic to proceedings, shadowy and wraith-like around the room, the threat of supernatural possession especially real. That things never quite detonate is to both their credit, an infinite horizon of atmospherics that shows both skilled restraint and tacit understanding. Shame to have not sat in this room when it was performed, so this is the next best thing. They might just have another 30 years in them, but still take the chances while you can.