Still Moving – Justin Adams and Maura Durante – review by Tim Cumming – The Arts Desk

Adams has long been Robert Plants guitarist in bands including the Sensational Space Shifters, as well as working with fellow Space Shifter Juldeh Camara in the band JuJu.

They first performed together at the Notte della Taranta in Puglia, fusing together in the heat of those fast, hard trance rhythms of Taranta, and sensing that something special was happening between them, together they laid down these songs directly to tape in the studio, no overdubs, their repertoire ranging through Delta and African-infused Blues as well as southern Italian laments and traditional folk songs such asDamme La Manu, beautifully sung by Durante.

Originals such as Dark Road Down combine the wild pizzica rhythm of Southern Italy with trance boogie, while Djinn Pulse sees Adams match Durantes superbly supple violin playing in energy and inventiveness. The following Cupa Cupa mixes Adams guitar with Durantes percussion to hyponotising effect, while Red Earth bounces with the combined energy of supersonic Taranta violin and riffinf guitar, and proves an excellent calling card for the duo.

The title song evokes Mediterranean journeys in an age of forced migration, while harking back to the Homeric myths of long passsage, and both the opening Dark Road Down and the coruscating riff of Calling Up - reminiscent of The Falls epic late-period Reformation - feature Adams gruff vocals and peerless guitar. Closing on a radical reinvention of The Carter Familys Little Moses, Still Moving is a trip in itself, musically, tonally, thematically. I saw them at Camdens Green Note last month, showcasing this music to an attentive crowd in that tiny venue, and it was captivating. Youll be captivated too.

@CummingTim

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Still Moving - Justin Adams and Maura Durante - review by Tim Cumming - The Arts Desk