Two guitar heroes going wild and wilder. Israel-born, New York-based Eyal Maoz, known for John Zorn’s Abraxas, his own bands Edom, Hypercolor and 9Volt, and a long-time fan of the legendary Eugene Chadbourne, and Chadbourne himself, who has played with Zorn already in the late seventies as well as with other idiosyncratic guitar heroes like Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Henry Kaiser. Sharp mastered this album.

The aptly titled The Coincidence Masters was recorded during Chadbourne’s visit to New York in June 2022. Then the two iconoclastic improvisers sat down for a fortuitous recording session where nothing was planned and everything was recorded without amps, making each listening experience as pristine as if it were the first time the album had ever been played through speakers.

Both Maoz and Chadbourne are inventive and resourceful improvisers, equipped with an eccentric sense of humor and enjoy the risk-taking experience. In this session, Maoz was experimenting with a partly new set of pedals while Chadbourne held his direct, no-consequences approach to creating sound while giving an old-school lesson in genius through the simplicity of it all, using mostly hands and sticks.

There is no way to anticipate where Maoz and Chadbourne will go. When you think that you figured out their course of thinking they are already developing the next sonic adventure on the spot. Occasionally, there is a vague sense of a constant beat, a poetic gesture, an exchange of mysterious alien transmissions, but most of the time Maoz and Chadbourne simply enjoy the game-like, and often enthusiastic and childish game-like of the art of the moment, streaming their unconsciousness while caressing – and at times bashing – their guitars.

This is the go-to album for those seeking easy-listening insanity.

Eyal Hareuveni

Eyal Maoz (guitar), Eugene Chadbourne (guitar)