Steve Gunn and Mike Cooper next up on FRKWYS

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  • The collaborative album, born from "lengthy living room guitar sessions and evenings of cold wine in Fado taverns," is due out in June.
  • Steve Gunn and Mike Cooper next up on FRKWYS image
  • The 11th instalment in RVNG Intl.'s FRKWYS series comes from guitarists Steve Gunn and Mike Cooper. The FRKWYS concept sees artists from different generations getting together in the studio. "It usually starts with these ideological pairings I have in my head," RVNG chief Matt Werth told RA back in January. "I plant the seeds, and if it resonates with the artists, then I'll continue to push." This time it's the turn of Cooper, a country blues artist with more than 50 years experience, and Gunn, who cites Cooper's 1970 LP Trout Steel as an album that "shaped his own ambitions and music." Cantos de Lisboa was recorded in Lisbon, Portugal, last September. According to a RVNG mailout, Gunn and Cooper shared "lengthy living room guitar sessions and evenings of cold wine in Fado taverns." They took inspiration from traditional Portuguese Fado music "while steering a wide berth from any bummer notes or pastiche." The label says the end result is "an abstract, almost field recorded take on lap-steel and American Primitive guitar styles." The album increases both the sound and global scope of the FRKWYS series, which has already seen Sun Araw and The Congos team up in St. Catherine, Jamaica. You can watch the "video single" for "Saudade do Santos-o-Velho" below:
    Tracklist 01. Saudade Do Santos-o-Vehlo 02. Pena Panorama 03. Song For Charlie 04. Pony Blues 05. The Enchanted Moura 06. Lampedusa 2013 07. Saramago RVNG will release Cantos de Lisboa on June 24th, 2014.
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