Chaz Prymek and Matthew Sage will release Shelter, their first proper full-length duo album, on April 10th via AKP. Available digitally and on a limited-run LP, the announcement arrives alongside the lead single Hill Blocks View.
The pair are old friends and collaborators whose work together stretches back to a run of duo releases in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Shelter is their first joint album in six years — a period in which both have been conspicuously productive. Prymek has continued his Lake Mary project and established himself as a curator and organiser in Salt Lake City, while Sage has released a string of acclaimed solo albums on RVNG Intl., most recently Tender / Wading, which KLOF’s Thomas Blake described as textural, varied, and frequently moving — the work of an artist unafraid of his own big heart. Together with Patrick Shiroishi and Chris Jusell, the pair are also members of Fuubutsushi, the ambient jazz combo whose Columbia Deluxe captured the rare chemistry of musicians who sound as if they’ve been playing together for an eternity.
Shelter draws on that shared history but marks something new. These were the first recordings made in the pole barn studio Sage set up in rural Colorado in 2022, and the album finds both artists settling back into the wide landscapes of the Mountain West — Colorado and Utah — after years spent wandering the Midwest. At its core are first-take live improvisations, Prymek on electric guitar and Sage on piano, gently layered with sparse overdubs: yearning slide guitar, accordion, clarinet, recorder, and delicate synthesizers, all given a sateen production finish. The result is hymn-like and deeply melodious — spacious and patient but windblown and chapped, carrying the influence of years of life changes, cross-country moves, and the warmth a sunbeam can bring along the way. Listen to Hill Blocks View below.
Shelter is released April 10th on AKP. Pre-Order: https://prymekandsage.bandcamp.com/album/shelter
