At the start of each new year, I create a post highlighting my favorite albums of the previous year. I generally pick a particular area of interest in the year’s releases to highlight. When I was perusing my picks for 2025, I noticed how many great collaborative duos there were this year. For me, one of the most inspiring aspects of music is the art of the collaboration. When multiple artist blend and mix their ideas and inspiration something truly magic can happen! The duos on this list greatly embody this. And so… out of my 81 picks for this year, I am highlighting some truly inspiring and dynamic duos.
Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter – Carter & Cleveland
I’m a huge fan of twin fiddles in Bluegrass music – two fiddles playing out intricate parts in matched harmony. Such a fine art! Back in 1980, bluegrass fiddle legends Kenny Baker & Bobby Hicks released their masterful album Darkness on the Delta. There have been surprisingly few dedicated twin fiddle albums released since this time. Back in the summer of 2018, I got to see bluegrass fiddle giants Michael Cleveland and Jason Carter playing twin fiddles together during the Del McCoury Band’s set at the California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day Festival. It was pure magic! Jason and Michael have reportedly been talking about making an album together for close to 20 years. They’ve finally done it! Carter & Cleveland is an instant bonafide classic! Some of the best twin fiddling you’ll ever hear!
Melaine Dalibert & David Sylvian – Vermilion Hours
David Sylvian is one of my favorite music artists. He has not released any music since 2014, so I was STOKED to see that he came out with a new collaborative album this year. Prior to this release, I was completely unfamiliar with French pianist/composer Melaine Dalibert. Vermillion Hours is a recoding of Dalibert’s beautifully sparse minimalist composition with subtle sonic treatments provided by Sylvian. It is both haunting and mysteriously unsettling. A modern ambient masterpiece IMO!
Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe – Lateral
Brain Eno and conceptual artist/composer Beatie Wolfe collaborated on 3 albums in 2025: Luminal, Lateral, and Liminal. Of these three, their instrumental ambient album Lateral was my favorite. A single minimalist melody repeats through the entire piece, but as it progresses subtle sonic details slowly shift. Peaceful, Dreamy, Comforting, Sad, Longing – all these feelings and more – part of this sonic pallet!
Flyte – Between You and Me
Flyte is the collaborative project of English songwriters Will Taylor and Nick Hill. They were an exciting new discovery for me in 2025. Their album Between You and Me combines inspired and heartfelt song writing with interesting arrangements and drop dead GORGEOUS two part harmonies. Although they are not siblings, their timbres match in a way that reminds me of so many great sibling singing groups. “I’m Not There” was one of my favorite songs of the year!
Sam Gendel & James McAlister – Diamond Staircase
I first became aware of saxophonist/composer Sam Gendel in 2021 from Pino Paladino & Blake Mills masterful album Notes With Attachments, which was one of my very favorite albums of that year. Then in 2022, I got into Sam’s solo album Superstore. I really loved all the super short minimalist quirky-yet soulful pieces on that album! This year he produced an amazing collaborative EP with drummer/composer James McAlester, known for his work with Sufjian Stevens and The National. The music here is hard to describe – somewhere between the worlds of ambient, techno, jazz and world groove. Completely unique and fresh!
Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke – Pareidolia
I discovered Japanese composer Eiko Ishibashi in 2021 for her beautiful soundtrack to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film Drive My Car. That soundtrack album was featured on my best of 2021 list. I knew of Jim O’Rourke for his collaborations with Wilco and Christian Fennesz. Ishibashi and O’Rourke are real life partners and Pareidolia is their first completely collaborative album. To call it an ambient album might be a bit misleading as the soundscapes they create hear are at times eerie and even disturbing, On this recording, they took concert recordings from their 2023 two-week tour through Europe and then edited, manipulated and remixed selected material from those performances, shaping it into a completely new sonic collage.
Henry Threadgill – Listen Ship (Mya Keren & Rahul Carlberg)
Composer/saxophonist Henry Threadgill has been experimenting with the use of multiple piano players in his ensembles since 2016. His new album Listen Ship features music for 2 pianos, 4 guitars and 2 basses. He blends the worlds of composition and improvisation in a mysterious and unique way. This album features two young pianists Mya Karen and Rahul Carlberg, who play together with such subtlety and grace. It is beautiful to hear how they bounce ideas off of one another and do not get in each other’s way, but rather paint sonic pictures together! Sadly, there are no tracks from this album available on Youtube.
My Favorite Albums of 2025 – Complete List
In alphabetical Order
Ryan Adams – Self Portrait
Anton Barbeau – Glitch Wizard
Tim Berne – Yikes Too
Matt Berninger – Get Sunk
Bon Iver – Sable, Fable
Bristle – Archimero
Broken Compass Bluegrass – Live Picks, Vol. 2
David Byrne – Who Is the Sky?
Brandi Carlisle – Returning to Myself
The Choir – Translucent
Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter – Carter & Cleveland
Wes Corbett – Drift
Madison Cunningham – Ace
Melaine Dalibert & David Sylvian – Vermilion Hours
Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves
Darkside – Nothing
Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike in Ruin
Simone Dinnerstein – Complicite
East Nash Grass – All God’s Children
Brian Eno – Bloom: Living World
Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe – Lateral
Rick Faris – Life’s Parade
Kora Feder – Some Kind of Truth
Fennesz – The Last Days of May
Fieldwork – Thereupon
Flyte – Between You and Me
Nils Frahm – Night
Sam Gendel & James McAlister – Diamond Staircase
Ben Goldberg, Nico Soffiato, Hamir Atwal – Three Square
Green Mitchell Trio – Nature Channel
Arve Henriksen, Tyrgve Seim, Anders Jormin & Markku Ounaskari – Arcanum
Sierra Hull – A Tip Toe High Wire
I’m With Her – Wild and Clear and Blue
Invisible Guy – Can’t Wait Till Tomorrow Cause Infinity is Getting Better Every Day
Iron & Wine & Ben Bridwell – Making Good Time
Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow
Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke – Pareidolia
Clarice Jensen – In Holiday Clothing, Out of the Great Darkness
Anastasia Kobekina – Bach: Cello Suites
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Arcadia
Benjamin Lackner – Spindrift
AJ Lee & Blue Summit – Cover to Cover V1
Steve Lehman – The Music of Anthony Braxton
Russ Lossing – Moon Inhabitants
Marta & Tricky – Out the Way
Nicolas Masson – Renaissance
Masters of Reality – The Archer
The David Mayfield Parade – Go Big and Go Home
Myra Melford – Splash
Juana Molina – Doga
Natural Information Society – Perseverance Flow
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas – Totality
Youssou N’Dour – Eclairer le Monde
Willie Nelson – Oh What a Beautiful World
Adam O’Farrill – For These Streets
Linda May Han Oh – Strange Heavens
Danny Paisley & Southern Grass – Bluegrass State of Mind
Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – That Wasn’t a Dream
Panda Bear- Sinister Grift
Arvo Part – And I Heard a Voice …
John Patitucci – Spirit Fall
Pocket Quartet – Hard-Boiled Music
Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke – Tall Tales
Katie Pruitt – The Pleasantville Sessions
Jaelee Roberts – Let Me Be Lonely
Rosalia – Lux
Bettina Simon & Orchester 1756 – Marcello: Oboe Concerto in D Minor
Tom Skinner – Kaleidoscopic Visions
Bruce Springsteen – Perfect World
Chris Thile – Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2
Henry Threadgill – Listen Ship
Zach Top – Me & Billy
Tuneyards – Tell the Future With Your Body
Jeff Tweedy – Twilight Override
Various Artists – Julia Belle – The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol 2
Watchhouse – Rituals
Derek Webb – Fruit on the Tree
Webber/Morris Big Band – Unseparate
Hayley Williams- Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Denison Witmer – Anything At All
Nilufer Yanya – Dancing Shoes