Stream: Steve Gunn & Mike Cooper – Frkwys Vol. 11

For the the eleventh volume of FRKWYS, an unrestricted series pairing contemporary artists with their influential predecessors, gifted guitar squire Steve Gunn collaborates with radiating legend Mike Cooper in Lisbon, Portugal. Sharing their vision over lengthy living room guitar sessions Gunn and Cooper created Cantos de Lisboa, an album with variable vernacular shades and musical forms from Portugal’s antiquity.

Giving you a peek into the rest of the album, Suadade do Santos-o-Velho takes emotive cues from Fado, the regional music of Portugal, close in genre to the spirit of the blues. A melancholy seeps into the music of Cantos de Lisboa, while steering a wide berth from any bummer notes or pastiche. Cooper's sparse effects toolkit and stately, gliding cadences are nimbly employed, while Gunn's steady strum lends an intensely organic feel to the album's improvisatory portraits. 

In the hands of these two limitless guitarists, Cantos de Lisboa convenes in an abstract, almost field recorded take on lap-steel and American Primitive guitar styles. For the brief idyll, Gunn and Cooper's collaboration is remarkably rich, marking their passage through Portugal not just as a time to revel in an ancient city, but a time for focused collaboration and creative consonance.

FRKWYS Vol. 11 will be released on June 24, 2014 on limited edition LP, CD and digital formats and will be available from both RVNG and Bandcamp.