The scope of violinist Richard Carr's CV is impossibly broad. The Rosendale resident has performed and/or recorded with everyone from the Boston Philharmonic to Bootsy Collins to the Swans. This freely improvising quartet finds him teamed with High Falls guitarist and electronics wiz Mike Nord, Swiss percussionist Georg Hofmann, and Oregonian Art Maddox on piano. Recorded live in 2005 at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, Biosphere is a moody maze of controlled tension, a restraint-wracked encounter that teases at outburst and keeps the listener deliciously on pins and needles for most of its nearly 70 minutes.

The first three tracks form the title suite, a piece that features Carr's scraped strings and Hofmann's clicking sticks cast atop the sparsely slammed chords of Maddox and the burbling blips of Nord's machines. Further gripping moments come during "Aftermath," which squeaks and shimmers like seagulls on a wave-washed shoreline; and in the second portion of the fittingly named "Diptych," where Maddox plinks like a grandfather clock in the bowels of an old house. Spooky.

Recently the foursome toured Japan with an improvisational dance troupe, and as we write Carr is at work on obtaining funds to bring the company to the US for performances. www.leorecords.com.

Hot on the heels of their emerging artist showcase gig at this year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, singer-guitarists Michelle Rubin and Rick Gedney—Open Book—return with their second solid, folk-filled CD.

Though I find myself preferring their intuitive and organic vocal blend to when either songwriter takes the lead, The Things We Keep, like its tuneful predecessor, 2002's Out of Time, is an engaging amalgam of harmony vocals, tasty folk rock, and, most importantly, intelligent and astute songwriting that fully realizes that whatever the two songwriters are living through, most of their audience has also experienced.

Unlike many contemporaries, the duo and its producer-guitarist, Billy Masters, know not to overproduce the music, and instead let the songs speak not only for themselves but to Open Book's deservedly growing audience. Evidence of this can be heard throughout the disc but radiates especially on the poppy lope of "Sing Me Love"; the evocative immediacy of my favorite track, "Springfield Avenue," which could be about any Main Street in the Hudson Valley; and the funky, unwinding "There for You." Other folk rockers include the closing "See You Next Time" and the chunky "New Direction Home." Open Book plays Peekskill Coffeehouse on November 3. www.openbookmusic.com

From the first conga beat of "Go to Mexico," one knows this will not be your typical Cassandra Wilson record. Although, what is a typical record from this "contemporary jazz artist" and, yes, another of your Hudson Valley neighbors? Wilson's song interpretations have always been broad, using lush fields of sound to convey the sometimes pent-up emotions of other jazz vocalists. Here, this Jackson, Mississippi, Delta lady teams up with veteran honky-tonk producer T-Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, Los Lobos, and many others) to bring her lyrical gift some Southern comfort. Wilson's voice, accompanied by her own acoustic guitar, is joined by (swoon) guitarist Marc Ribot, Keb'Mo, and about 10 other players, all carriage men ready to take her on a deep trip back to Deep Ellum.Versions of classics like "Red River Valley" (with stunning slide guitar work by Colin Linden) hang alongside insightful album originals like "Poet" and "Tarot." The entire mood evokes the Bayou jazz of Olu Dara, who has opened for Wilson many a time. Having firmly established herself as a modern chanteuse to be reckoned with, Wilson shrugs off any hint that this album is a gimmick; it's more of a classic in the finest cross-genre soul tradition of Roberta Flack and Aretha Franklin.