STEVE GUNN & MIKE COOPER

While there's absolutely no need to summon hollow reasons for this collaboration to make sense, one can always resort to the guitar as a link between Mike Cooper and Steve Gunn. If needed, taking in mind the disparity of their careers, and without reducing it to a “mere” instrument, there’s always the ghost of the blues and folk haunting both musicians in the most beatific manner. Patiently cementing his relevance, Steve Gunn returns to the OUT.FEST one year after a stunning concert, and with the beauty of 'Time Off' – through Paradise of Bachelors - still fresh in everyone's ears and minds. In-between such efforts, he's been active as the guitar player for Kurt Vile's backing band – Violators – and released a lovely “open road” record with drummer John Truscinski, all the while being recognized as one of folk's true brilliant minds. An invisible living legend on his own, Mike Cooper has been developing a noble legacy for more than 40 years, whose work is still criminally overlooked. Extending to such areas as electronic music or sound installation, Cooper's magnificent work crosses from being a session musician in numerous records, through his responsibility in defining the blues in the UK in the late 60's to his experimental voyages within the genre. With a deep knowledge of music from the Pacific, he's been developing a passionate study among the boundaries of exotica – making him a secret influence/forerunner for a lot of most recent tropical visions – that's been registered on a number of records whose value is still to be truly acknowledged. As the musicians prepare to record an album together, this debut meeting between Cooper and Gunn reveals itself as one of those happenings that can't really be missed.