Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Thomas Bartlett

Emerging from The Gloaming's five-strong fold, Hardanger d'amore player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and pianist Thomas Bartlett have struck of to make a singular and stunning album of instrumental pieces that sees both players working deep into their own distinctive terrain and meeting at the heart of it. The album features nine remarkable tracks, with four extending into ten-minute territory, which enables the duo to spread their wings and skilfully negotiate the thermals of inspiration, craft, nuance and improvisation.

They first played as a duo, rather than parts of a quintet sat on opposite sides of the stage, at a studio in Mexico on a Gloaming tour. They were the only ones to turn up. They played for hours, and the nine-minute ‘Zona Rosa’ and a spectral four minutes of ‘The Wanderer’ come from those sessions. More emerged from The Wood Room at Real World Studios a year later, with tracks including the outstanding ‘Strange Vessels’, named after WG Sebald's masterpiece, The Rings of Saturn. The final sessions, which include the improvised soundcheck that is the striking opener, ‘Kestrel’, were made in New York. It's all live and largely improvised. The dissolving, resolving and reconvening of the music is without hesitation, repetition or restraint, and utterly absorbing.