Natalie Cressman & Mike Bono: Etchings in Amber

Natalie Cressman first joined forces with guitarist Mike Bono two years ago, but both artists have been traveling the world with other projects since then. Their first release as a duo, Etchings in Amber, realizes Cressman and Bono’s skill at crafting light, jazzy ballads, best consumed late at night somewhere with a drink minimum. It’s a culmination of Cressman’s jazz upbringing and her solo career, made up of refreshing, compositional turns owing equal inspiration to the jam vibes she has picked up as a standing member of Trey Anastasio Band and as a collaborator with Lettuce. Bono’s CV is equally impressive, including time spent with Erykah Badu and Aloe Blacc. He’s honed a strumming style that’s noodle-y but precise, with chill and meditative vibes that fortify Cressman’s knack for untying a knotty phrase. Though she forgoes her signature trombone on these nine tracks, Etchings in Amber brings the listener ever closer to Cressman’s power as a vocalist, conjuring shades of Joni Mitchell in crystallizing solitude, with a level of introspection far beyond her 24 years. Consider the early album highlight “Wind of Whims,” where she casually sings, “Gambling has its costs.” The ability to write a line so simple yet profound is a distinction we bestow on Neil Young and Robert Hunter, but Cressman’s got it, too. It’s fitting that she uses such gifts with careful sparsity, on a record without distractions to get in the way of the songs, both beautiful in their directness and unexpectedly deep.