Black Duck with Elena Setién

The Chicago trio of Black Duck is a natural fit for collaboration with acclaimed Basque musician Elena Setién. Black Duck’s bassist/guitarist Douglas McCombs, guitarist Bill MacKay and drummer Charles Rumback have been lauded for their adaptability as live performers and collaborators for decades, performing in countless ensembles from Tortoise to Brokeback to collaborations with Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan, James Singleton and many more. Setién honed her improvisational skills in duo Little Red Suitcase before going on to collaborate with the likes of Steve Gunn, Mary Lattimore, and Glenn Kotche (Wilco) to name a few. Black Duck and Elena Setién’s combined preternatural ability to converse at the boundaries of improvisation and composition makes for fertile ground in which every subtle gesture carries weight. On their debut, self-titled collaborative release, Black Duck and Elena Setién alchemize the ease of their live chemistry and their wealth of experience into a refined menagerie.

The quartet first played together in early 2025 having only just met, trading off sitting in on each other’s sets on a run of shows throughout Spain. Setién explains: “This record for me, is a prolongation of that tour together in Spain. We combined our sets and every night new improvisations evolved. So we took that same freshness to the studio.” Recorded just a few months later in Chicago at Palisade with Nick Broste after only a few hours of rehearsal time, the record embraces the spontaneity of those performances. “Working with Nick Broste was easy and natural for us,” notes Rumback. “At this point we have all probably recorded multiple projects with him in different bands, so it was a shared language that let us move fast.” Setién adds, “Nick is the kind of sound engineer who makes music with the band–sound is his instrument.” The freewheeling compositions take on added layers of depth with skillfully layered overdubs. The album perfectly balances the openness and core electric energy shared between each musician in the room and sumptuous, detailed arrangements.

Each member’s signature sound shines through in glimmering detail. Setién’s unmistakable songcraft on “Land of the Many Eyes” is bolstered by lithe countermelodies from McCombs’ bass. Likewise, any fan of McCombs’ work will recognize “Connects by Water” as his own, while the ensemble pulls the piece into a more breezy atmosphere colored by quietly sloshing waves of feedback. MacKay’s rhythmically propulsive guitar playing and chordal gestures give endless momentum to “Sunshine Unlimited” and the darkly mysterious “Behind the Door” where Rumback’s “Duck Walk” ends the album on a waltzing, tongue-in-cheek lark. The fully collaborative pieces “I am on the Other Side” and “Cactus Mirror” make for the album’s most spacious and sonically adventurous pieces, inhabiting the sound of an ensemble reveling in the joy of what they can unearth together.

Together, Black Duck and Elena Setién sound like a singular unit and four powerhouses all at once. Their collective compositional acumen makes for an exquisite diversity of sounds and movements that all cohere into a singular album only they could make. Black Duck and Elena Setién is a gem of collective work, the sound of a quartet of masters of their craft moving in tandem.