Port de Taipana

This second studio album from the Belgian duo of Florian De Schepper and Anouk Sanczuk has a sense of joyous pan-European feeling that appears almost exotic these days. The conservatoire-trained musicians have taken folk music as their base for flights of instrumental fancy that dance around every craggy promontory of the continent. Sanczuk plays violin and alto-violin while De Schepper mixes guitar and percussion with some Greek bouzouki. The set of 11 tracks swings between the upbeat tempo of a lively pub session and the tempered elegance and restraint of their classical and jazz backgrounds. They have spent the few years leading up to this release touring Europe – and evidently developing a love of the Mediterranean south in particular, judging by tracks such as ‘Far de Formentor’ (a lighthouse on a craggy peak in Majorca) and ‘Crazy for Cachi’ (persimmons, an Italian autumn delicacy). Polished and lively stuff, it's made the more sumptuous in its mellower moments. On tracks like ‘Berceuse de l'Hibou’ and ‘Princesse de Desert’ a meditative calm descends as plucked strings and haunting drones melt into lullaby melodies.