Rantala and Wakenius combined to memorable effect on the album Tears for Esbjorn, recorded live in October 2015 as part of the Siggi Loch curated Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic series. That excellent, yet somewhat critically underrated, concert, provided the inspiration for their subsequent collaboration. After a critically acclaimed appearance at Jazz Baltica in 2016, they were subsequently invited to record for the ACT label, where they recorded in Loch’s gallery in Berlin, Rantala playing the Steinway grand once owned by Alfred Brendel, the acclaimed Austrian concert pianist. The repertoire they have chosen to play is ever so slightly off-the-wall, as befits any project involving the former leader of the definitely off-the-wall Trio Töykeät, but it works to surprisingly good effect. Thus we have Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ rubbing shoulders with John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ and Louis Armstrong’s latter-day hit ‘What a Wonderful World’ in the mix with Bizet’s ‘Carmen’. As befits two virtuosi, there is flair, panache and wild invention in abundance on a remarkable album that somehow combines depth with engaging accessibility.