*2024 stock* Matthew Putman and Michael Sarian found a home in a makeshift studio, using a borrowed 20-year-old keyboard, a good microphone, and in cramped apartment acoustics, to improvise throughout the pandemic. What they called their “weekly pilgrimages” gave them a sense of much-needed sanity, grounding their friendship and keeping them afloat, as Sarian describes, “much like a lifeboat.” The resultant project was an exploration of cadences, rhythms, and full of searching and synchronicity. This album, A Lifeboat (Part II) follows the duo’s first release, and explores many of the same themes, balancing Putman’s velvety keyboard with Sarian’s character-driven trumpet and flugelhorn. This follows their 2020 project (Improvisations Volumes I & II).