Justin Adams and Mauro Durante
Trance blues from the Mediterranean.
England’s Justin Adams and Italy’s Mauro Durante released an award-winning debut album, Still Moving, in 2021. A thrilling, spontaneous affair that swerves between the laments and love songs of southern Italy and the gritty blues of North Africa and North America, its raw, stripped-back sound is truly singular and mesmerizing. Adams (producer of Tinariwen’s breakout albums and music director guitarist with Robert Plant) plays with a post-punk guitar approach enriched by his passion for Arabic music and African trance blues, while Durante (a sought-after violinist and percussionist and leader of Italy’s acclaimed Canzionere Grecanico Salentino), gravitates toward the trance rhythms of Taranta and the pizzica style of Southern Italy.