Pre-eminent Chicago reedsman Ken Vandermark and guitarist Terrie Ex of veteran Dutch anarcho-punks The Ex have a long collaborative relationship.

Vandermark has guested with The Ex countless times, and both are members of improvising quartet Lean Left with The Ex’s other guitarist Andy Moor and powerhouse drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. But this is only their second duo album, following 2019’s Scaffolding, also released on Ex’s Terp label.

Ex is one of the most idiosyncratic players around, especially in a free-improvising context where he often augments the guitar with drumsticks rammed into the strings, wresting an extended dialect of unusual sounds from the axe – from taut scrabblings to queasy paroxysms reminiscent of Sonny Sharrock.

Here, his instant rapport with Vandermark makes for some thrilling, hyperactive excursions that never sit still long enough to get boring. Ex strikes a ringing harmonic and Vandermark instantly responds with a lingering tenor note. Vandermark’s peeping clarinet elicits high twanging from the strings. A fruity, gutbucket baritone growl calls forth a rough barrage like distant warfare. There’s never a dull moment.