Joseba Agirrezabalaga & Mikel Vega - Lepok

Depenadabe Spanish imprint Urpa i Musell's survey of the experimental outposts of the Basque region continues with this latest long player of Jandekian meets Dead C guitar abstraction and exploration. Joseba Agirrezabalaga & Mikel Vega are 20-year+ veterans of an experimental scene split between the two locales of Bilbao and Azkoitia, and the improvisatory approach of Lepok functions as an articulation of the multiple dialogues and shared understandings that underpin their communities. If there's common ideological ground, then the music itself mostly operates as a counterpoint, the two guitarists operating in mutually agreed disharmony, fervently leaning into dissonance and anti-formalism, even if at times that results in something unexpectedly pretty. At some point this might have been labeled 'post-rock', as broad and somewhat unhelpful a term as that is, although it's a suggestion given some credence when you consider the way in which the jazz-informed approach of the title track echoes that of one-time Tortoise guitarist, Jeff Parker. The reality is likely a little more prosaic, that Agirrezabalaga and Vega are simply operating on their own axis in their own self-directed context, speaking to their own experience. That's the real value of releases and labels like this, covering the ground and documenting the moments you might otherwise miss. More fool us. The margins has always been where it's at.