This understated duo-in-dialogue builds on the explorations of Serries' solo effort from last year, Etched Above The Bow Grip, a stylistically diverse set which doubled as the Belgian guitarist's tribute to Derek Bailey. That Sheffield scion's influence is even more keenly felt on Innocent as Virgin Wood. Whereas 2016's collection saw Serries still clinging to remnants of his old isolationist ambient habits, here he lays all bare on the altar of unadulterated improvisation (perhaps this is the purity referenced in the album's title). It's a conversation that follows poet-gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay's resolve to reduce everything to its simplest essence. With scant place to hide, it's left to Verhoeven's sprinkled mizzle of notes to mitigate Serries' more confrontational tastes. Non-idiomatic debate plays out as gunboat diplomacy in a succession of unresolved balancing acts. Languid but never supine, Innocent as Virgin Wood takes its cues from the magisterially-restrained music of Morton Feldman and AMM, or even, during its most bucolic moments, the reductive realms domiciled within Another Timbre's academic temple of sleepwalkers.