Jim Becker and Joe Adamik are resolute sidemen and longtime fixtures of Chicago’s live-music scene. The former often plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo in rootsy settings, both straight and twisted, while the latter appears most often these days drumming with jazz and improvisational combos. Their partnership began in 2000, when they were both members of polymorphous rock band Califone, and carried on when Iron & Wine recruited most of Califone in 2010. They started playing together as a duo while on tour with those projects, during the downtime that’s an inescapable part of life on the road. In 2014 they began taking the stage as Lanzon, and they started recording shortly afterward–but it’s taken them until now to release their self-titled debut LP. The record’s six tracks display their stylistic reach as well as the full range of their multi-instrumentalism. Each man plays electric keyboards, electronic effects, and percussion; Adamik proves himself a more than adequate guitarist on the rustic “Mescalina” and the bristling, funky “Arc Minute,” and his reeds confer melancholic dignity upon album closer “Lhasa.” On the album, Adamik and Becker played all the instruments themselves, but they’ll be joined onstage by drummer Glenn Kotche, bassist Matt Lux, clarinetist Asher Waldron, and trumpet and flugelhorn player Katie Samavoa. v
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