A pair of contemporary music giants are re-releasing a long-lost 2003 recording on Mar. 18, previously available only as a CD-R. Just 10 copies were produced of Recorded Yesterday and on sale Today. They were snatched up by attendees at the third Mo-Fo Antifolk Festival in Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen.

The duo in question is Eugene Chadbourne and Quentin Rollet. Chadbourne is on five-string banjo; Rollet adds alto saxophone.

“I met Eugene many years ago when I used to run the Rectangle record label with Noël Akchoté,” writes Rollet in the album’s notes. “But I never had the chance to play with him. André Herman Düne offered to record us in their studio the day before Eugene’s show [at the festival]. … I recently digged into an old hard drive and found these tracks and decided to release them after a good listen. They’re 20 years old and still sound fresh to me, even if my play has evolved a lot since then.”

Each of these five tracks reminds us of the timelessness of finely crafted contemporary music. Chadbourne’s banjo delivers a suitably unconventional counterpoint to Rollet’s tensely soulful alto sax. There is no indication whatsoever that the pair had not recorded together before this session.

Chadbourne is a celebrated guitarist and banjo performer whose career dates back to the mid-1970s. Rollet’s discography begins in 1994. The multi-instrumentalist is a frequent collaborator with a wide range of artists and groups, including Nurse With Wound, The Red Krayola, Mendelson and The Legendary Pink Dots.