Saxophonist Rob Hall has carved out a notable niche in both performance and education since moving to Scotland a few years back, while pianist Chick Lyall has been a creative force on the Scottish jazz scene since the late 1980s. This refined duo outing reflects the work they have been doing together over the past couple of years, and both players contributed compositions to the session, drawing on influences from their work in classical and - to a lesser extent - Celtic music contexts as well as jazz. The result is a series of beautifully constructed and cleanly articulated pieces that are notably atmospheric and evocative, to the point of verging on being classed as tone poems at times. These formal compositions are linked by occasional brief freely improvised interludes. Hall's use of four different saxophones adds variety to the sonic palette, and both players are able to find their space in the music with impeccable taste and discrimination.
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