James Moore and Andie Springer, ‘Gertrudes’
There is, first of all, the wonderful blend of sonorities involved — the shimmery metallic tones of the resonator guitar, a sound more often encountered in Delta blues or other forms of American roots music — combined with the plangent drone of the violin.
Guitarist James Moore and violinist Andie Springer are virtuoso performers, fusing their disparate instrumental voices into a texture that is sometimes smoothly intertwined, and sometimes an ornery dialogue.
[...] the six works represented are mostly first-rate, beginning with Larry Polansky’s aggressively buoyant “10 Strings (9 Events),” whose jittery rhythms and guitar slides establish the terms of the conversation — or at least one aspect of it.
[...] delightful are Paula Matthusen’s eerie, crystalline “In Absentia” and Lainie Fefferman’s “Fiddly Tune,” which draws on the violin’s role in jigs and country dances.
[...] the disc closes in an extended stretch of pure transcendence, with a serene, long-breathed violin solo written for Springer by the late, great Robert Ashley.— Joshua Kosman