After a decade of shared work in the Tarkovsky Quartet and an ongoing alliance in the Pergolesi Project, German cellist Anja Lechner and French pianist Francois Couturier unveil their new duo. The players approach the music from different vantage points: Lechner is a classical soloist with an uncommon interest in improvisation, Couturier a jazz musician travelling ever further from jazz. On 'Moderato cantabile' they present their own arrangements of works by three fascinating outsiders from the margins of music history - G.I. Gurdjieff, Komitas and Federico Mompou. To differing degrees their music reveals influences from the east, both in terms of relationship to folk traditions and religious music, and philosophically. A contemplative air pervades the session. The programme has connections to Anja Lechner's acclaimed account of Gurdjieff's music on the earlier Chants, Hymns and Dances (9819613, with Vassilis Tsabropoulos), but the new duo has...