If you still think there's an untraversable frontier between the so-called mainstream and the so-called avant-garde, it's because you're not noticing what's going on. And what's going on is well represented by James Carney and Stephan Crump, musicians who developed in admiration and assimilation of numerous musical languages and who are always combining the tradition with the invention of "the jazz to come". The listener can easily hear such inclusiveness on this particular recording, which could be described simply as “composition created in the moment.”
The pianist Carney's collaborations with such varied musicians as Ravi Coltrane and Nels Cline, and his current septet with the equal-minded players Tony Malaby, Peter Epstein, Ralph Alessi, Josh Roseman, Chris Lightcap and Mark Ferber, make him one of the most notable of this new front of performers who find in the past the bricks to build the future.
We have to say the same about the bassist of this duo: Crump is indifferent to styles and tendencies, as evidenced by his own all-string Rosetta Trio as well as his membership in the Vijay Iyer Trio, Jim Campilongo Electric Trio, Jen Chapin Trio, Liberty Ellman Quartet, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet and another duo project with saxophonist Steve Lehman.
This project’s genesis took place after a couple of quartet sessions at Carney’s loft apartment in Brooklyn; on a third occasion they decided to play duo, and Crump brought along his mobile recording equipment to capture these two unedited performances.
Give a listen and turn yourself on with this new and very welcomed reality.

This from Jim Macnie of The Village Voice:

"There's something wonderfully mercurial about the music that the bassist and pianist offer on the new Echo, Run, Pry. The two fully improvised pieces are constantly in flux, sometimes examining textures, sometimes refining flow, sometimes tinkering with melody. They're constantly testing the limits of rapport, so the ruminative bowing corresponds with the isolated plinks."

This from Will Layman of PopMatters:

"Like some classic jazz LP from the ‘70s, this recording consists of just two tracks, 20-plus minute free improvisations that unspool gradually and beautifully.  (The model for Crump and Carney may have been the 1976 recordings on Improvising Artists by Sam Rivers and Dave Holland.)  These duets are free and sometimes dissonant, but they are clear and melodic too—patient and surprising and uncommonly gorgeous.  Carney is reaching into his instrument to pluck or mute strings, turning the piano into something exciting but not snarling, and Crump is rich in tone and every bit the piano’s equal.  Grooving, swinging, free, mind-blowing."