Justin Adams & Mauro Durante

African traditions and post-punk grooves with a twist of Italian “pizzica”

Justin Adams, guitarist, producer and composer, has been a creator of wonders with Robert Plant in the Sensational Space Shifters. He’s also worked with Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, Jah Wobble, and Sinead O’Connor. This new collaboration with Mauro Durante stems from a fascination with trance rhythms and their common role in otherwise radically different musical traditions. Durante conjures thundering rhythms out of a simple frame drum while the pair execute a series of fiddle/electric guitar duets that are alternately fiery and filigree. Desert blues guitar combines with Maghreb chants, transported across the Med to the heel of southern Italy. Influences as diverse as garage rock and avant-garde contemporary classical are thrown into the cross-cultural stew.