Matthew Rolin / Aperture / Nguyen, Shukla, Hull

Matthew Rolin / Aperture / Nguyen Shukla Hull

With a slew of full-length releases on some of the Western hemisphere’s sharpest labels for out, experimental or psychedelic music -- Astral Spirits, Feeding Tube, Worried Songs, Trouble in Mind -- Matthew J. Rolin has quietly established himself as one of America’s higher purveyors of guitar music. He’s often worked in collaboration with his wife, the librarian and hammer dulcimer player Jen Powers, with whom he curates music for the Astral Spirits imprint Astral Editions; recent years have brought forth collaborations between Rolin, Powers, and Cloud Nothings drummer Jayson Gerycz. Throughout, Rolin and Powers have toured up and down the country, supporting countless kindred artists touring through Ohio (Superwolves, Dummy, Itasca), where they live. His past albums often made space for an epic, sometimes stretching past the twenty-minute mark. (Take, for example, the longform journeys of 2020’s The Dreaming Bridge, which featured a duet between Rolin and fellow American Dreamer Patrick Shiroishi.) But Rolin conceived of Passing as a “straight-up solo endeavor: no guests, no ‘experimental sounds,’ and no frills.” Passing presents Rolin at his most refined. The audio is crisp, the compositions tight, the music unpretentious and moving.