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Mute Duo’s music is emblematic of their deep roots in Chicago. Pedal steel guitarist Sam Wagster and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Skyler Rowe draw on the city’s long legacy of omnivorous instrumental music, with a sound that is slow and wide open, incorporating elements of free improvisation, ambient music, and Americana. Many artists in Chicago’s underground music scene seek commonalities in seemingly divergent styles, inventing a new vernacular from their juxtaposition. Mute Duo’s list of local collaborators, ranging from folk-leaning mainstays Ryley Walker and Bill MacKay to up-and-coming jazz musicians Matthew Lux and Ben Lamar Gay, marks them as direct inheritors of that approach.