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Album Review: Xylouris White - Black Peak

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"A master class from two musicians taking their traditional instruments right out to the edge."

More Xylouris White Xylouris White Profile

Many may have expected the collaboration between Jim White (Dirty Three) and Cretan lute player George Xylouris to be a one-off collaboration.

But now they're onto album number two, which features Xylouris singing on more tracks and the pair digging deeper into their primitive jazz and post-rock sense of musical adventure. The mood of the album varies from languid to visceral. Forging is a galloping piece of pagan acoustic metal that thrills with its speed and momentum, while other tracks explore minimal mood, drones and percussive dissonance with similar verve and free-spiritedness. Black Peak feels instinctive and symbiotic, a master class from two musicians taking their traditional instruments right out to the edge of avant-garde darkness.