Natalie Cressman first joined forces with guitarist Mike Bono two years ago, but both artists have been traveling the world with other projects since then. Their first release as a duo, Etchings in Amber, realizes Cressman and Bono’s skill at crafting light, jazzy ballads, best consumed late at night somewhere with a drink minimum. It’s a culmination of Cressman’s jazz upbringing and her solo career, made up of refreshing, compositional turns owing equal inspiration to the jam vibes she has picked up as a standing member of Trey Anastasio Band and as a collaborator with Lettuce. Bono’s CV is equally impressive, including time spent with Erykah Badu and Aloe Blacc. He’s honed a strumming style that’s noodle-y but precise, with chill and meditative vibes that fortify Cressman’s knack for untying a knotty phrase. Though she forgoes her signature trombone on these nine tracks, Etchings in Amber brings the listener ever closer to Cressman’s power as a vocalist, conjuring shades of Joni Mitchell in crystallizing solitude, with a level of introspection far beyond her 24 years. Consider the early album highlight “Wind of Whims,” where she casually sings, “Gambling has its costs.” The ability to write a line so simple yet profound is a distinction we bestow on Neil Young and Robert Hunter, but Cressman’s got it, too. It’s fitting that she uses such gifts with careful sparsity, on a record without distractions to get in the way of the songs, both beautiful in their directness and unexpectedly deep.