Review: For Living Lovers’ ‘Natural Name’

Natural Name (Sunnyside, 2025) is the second album by For Living Lovers, the acoustic duo of guitarist Brandon Ross and bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi. Ross has appeared in so many contexts – electric, free, and as a leader and sideman – that sometimes his versatility on acoustic instruments becomes lost in the conversation. That is, unless you speak to someone like Cassandra Wilson, who has worked with Ross for decades. This particular excursion doesn’t display Ross’s rootsy side but is instead in a much freer direction. Much of the music is based on the unique intervallic organization of the duo’s shared colleague – Ross recruited Takeishi to be a member of Threadgill’s Make a Move band in the mid-1990s – and mentor Henry Threadgill. The NEA Jazz Master’s system is based on a pan-tonal structure for composition and developing improvisation, unbounded by diatonicism. The pieces are themselves primarily composed by Ross and wholly performed on string instruments designed by renowned luthier Steve Klein. The music is natural, in the moment, and unpredictable in terms of responses and patterns.

The recordings on Natural Name come from two different performances. Most are from the duo’s inaugural September 2024 Chewattyr Residency at Looking Glass Arts in upstate New York, performed at a dairy barn converted into a studio. Three additional pieces were from a February 2019 performance at the Yamaha Music Salon in New York City.

The opener, “Pioneer,” captures the gorgeous tones of the guitar and acoustic bass, blending as if patiently embarking on a step-by-step journey. During the recording session in the quasi-open-air barn, Takeishi was stung by a wasp. Thus, the subject for “Pollinator,” where Ross plays a voice-like banjo introduction. The piece builds rhythmically to a peak, but ends with the bass guitar fading out, reflecting perhaps the pain of the sting sapping his energy.  

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“Pan,” titled after the ancient Greek god of nature, also references pan-tonality and the well-worn phrase “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” It evolves in sections, unhurried and replete with percussion and unexpected “noises.” Only the duo knows where they are headed. There is no mention of percussion in the credits, so we must associate the many skittering and metallic sounds running through this piece, as well as others, with the two players. “Jenkins of Alhambra” is dedicated to Ross’s former mentor, Leroy Jenkins. Ross composed the piece on flamenco guitar and reflects Jenkins’s phrasing. The previous four tracks in the album have been subtle and quiet, leading into the even calmer strains of “Broken Waves, Fallen Trees,” essentially a tone poem, not far removed from the opening track. Listen carefully for the independent paths of the guitar and bass.

“Race Face/O. People” moves far more briskly. Ornette Coleman composed the first half of the medley as both duo partners pluck enthusiastically. The piece then morphs into “O.People,” Ross’s funky tribute to Oliver Lake, is also the first time we hear applause from the live audience.  “LLARW” is a gorgeous ballad with spacey notes that reverberate into the ether. The pace quickens only slightly with “Hammer,” inspired by photographs by Caroline Munoz, whose work takes portraits of facial tissues and remnants of psychotherapy sessions. It is certainly an odd inspiration for composing. The duo gains momentum only to close abruptly, much to the audience’s delight. “Open Circle,” filled with repeated cyclical passages and the two string instruments ricocheting off each other, strives for a borderless feeling.

Ross experiments with geometry, too. “Bullseye” uses a graphic score with a circle intersected by two axes. The musicians move from outside the circle to the horizontal lines, to an arpeggiated harmony that introduces a series of transitions. As they maneuver through the piece, the artists conjure areas of activity, then slip away to find another destination, each moving more separately than in unison.  As unique as these pieces are, the biggest surprise is the closer, “From a High Place.” It sounds almost like chanting from a monastery. Ross claims the vocal composition was born from a dream of “ordained union,” gratitude, and transcendence. 

There’s plenty of unity and transcendence throughout this creatively conceived duo session. Like its predecessor, Revealing Essence (Sunnyside, 2014), Natural Name is deeply intimate. Intimacy usually means relaxing, but for Ross and Takeishi, curious and unsettled are an inescapable part of the definition as well.  

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‘Natural Name’ will be released on November 7, 2025 on Sunnyside Records. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.