The thing about this writing jam is that you can’t be all-knowing. For those who think they are a paragon of omniscience, well… they’re full of shit.
In fairness, it makes the thrill of the chase even more thrilling when excellent releases slip the net. Ones exactly like Elena Setién’s 2022 LP, Familiar Minds. The Basque artist, releasing a beguiling, vague hybrid of avant-pop that kept you going back for more.
It was similar results for Setién’s 2024 follow-up, Moonlit Reveries, and, all told, her new self-titled collaboration alongside Chicago hustlers, Black Duck, could very much be described as that. Take the album’s second piece, Land of the Many Eyes. One of several moments where Setién takes centre stage, and as she sings “Up to the mountains I went one night/ To rejoice in full moon light,” it’s a moonlit serenade, brimming with locality as she frames both time and place.
In between Setién’s two above-noted releases, Black Duck produced some magic of their own with their excellent 2023 self-titled debut. The trio of guitarist, Bill MacKay, bassist, Douglas McCombs, and drummer, Charles Rumback, the conjurers of a tangled form of blues that washed over you like a radiant sound bath.
In their own right, MacKay and McCombs have already had a stellar year. Throughout this decade, it’s been a rarity when they haven’t. MacKay, churning out some slow-burning majesty alongside Bitchin Bajas’ Cooper Crain as BCMC, while McCombs has released music bi-quarterly so far this year; firstly with the wonderful return of Pullman (III), then as a part of supergroup, Sick Gazelle (Veld).
This particular merging of musical minds stemmed from Setién and Black Duck playing shows together in Spain last year. A concoction where improvisation was the burning theme and transferring their ideas from the stage, the project quickly evolved, leading them to Chicago’s Palisade studio where they recorded with Nick Broste.
Black Duck with Elena Setién - Black Duck with Elena SetiénThe results speak for themselves. These compositions, like watching the flames from an open fireplace. It’s therapeutic in every sense, beginning with Explain. Led by MacKay’s wandering, blues-inspired signature sound, it arcs and moves gracefully with rich cadence.
So too the excellent Sunshine Unlimited. A rumbling blues jam, as Rumback leads the line from behind the kit in cavalier-like fashion. The keys, like a shower of summer, as MacKay joins in on the vibe and is at his expansive best. This freewheeling nature is dotted throughout Black Duck with Elena Setién. I Am on the Other, scattergun improv’, while Cactus Mirror also underpins the foundations on which this collaboration was built.
Elsewhere, and held together by Rumback and McCombs’ rhythm section, Connects By Water is a beautiful precursor to what is one of the songs of the year. Funeral in My Brain, one of those defining moments that every artist aspires to. Setién’s performance is bewitching, and alongside Black Duck’s sonic bedding, the moment is dynamic. Searching blues with potent emotional force that evokes the same feelings as, say, Palace Music’s West Palm Beach.
So good, it’s hard to imagine this collaboration getting any better. But it’s really not about that. It’s about the ebb and flow, and with the cinematic-tinged Behind the Door, it leads into equally dark War Zone. Just as stirring as Funeral in My Brain (“I can hear your babies crying”), MacKay’s beautiful guitar inflections compliment the heart-melting performance that Setién gives.
And with the coda of Duck Walk, an instrumental worthy of closing all good albums, in time Black Duck with Elena Setién will be far more than that. The musical voices of MacKay and McCombs in particular, two of the most vital in underground music today, and backed by Rumback, alongside Setién, the Basque singer lifts these compositions up to a level that few others can reach.
Black Duck with Elena Setién is out now via Thrill Jockey. Purchase from Bandcamp.
