Jon Durant and Stephan Thelen recently released the album Crossings. “In April 2020, during the lockdown, Leonardo Pavkovic at Moonjune asked me to provide a piece of music for a sampler album he was planning to release. I immediately thought of doing a duo with Jon,” says Stephan. “I decided to revisit the title track from my 2004 solo album, Vol de Nuit, which we recorded as a homage to two of our favorite guitarists, Robert Fripp and Terje Rypdal.”
Sid Smith writes: “From his back door in Portland, Oregon, Jon Durant can see the Sellwood Bridge spanning the Willamette River in Portland. When Stephan Thelen steps outside his home in Switzerland’s Oberrieden on the shore of Lake Zürich, he can see the snow-capped Glarus Alps. Two guitarist composers living near two very different bodies of water in two very different parts of the world. These days, such distances present no obstacles when it comes to working together. These days, days of lockdowns and troublesome infection rates, such distances might almost be viewed as a virtue.”
“That rapid accretion of ideas resulting in the layers, moods, and atmospheres that are captured on Crossings come suffused with a vitality and energy that flows back and forth between these two artists.” Make sure to read Sid Smith’s complete review on Bandcamp.