US vocalist Sachal Vasandani and French pianist Romain Collin, both now adopted New Yorkers as well as friends and neighbours, join forces on this album of incredible understatement, intimate delicacy and tender lyricism. Opener ‘Summer No School’ sets the scene, with Collin's wonderfully rich, chiming, almost hymnic chordal accompaniment gently enveloping Vasandani's characteristically crystal clear, velvet-toned vocal line, with the pianist's final unresolved chord left hanging mid-air like a question. The duo bathe Lewis Capaldi's personal elegy ‘Before You Go’ in a subtle glow of otherworldly contemplation, while Vasandani channels vulnerability and longing in a decidedly sotto voce take on another contemporary pop song, ‘Adore You’. Other highlights include ‘Great Ocean Road’, in which Vasandani's facility for storytelling and Collin's gently rippling accompaniment complement one another perfectly, a welcome airing of the great Abbey Lincoln's ‘Throw It Away’, the Dylan country-folk classic ‘Don’t Think Twice, It's All Right', plus a haunting take on one of Wayne Shorter's most beautiful compositions, ‘Dance Cadaverous’, from his peerless 1966 Blue Note album Speak No Evil. A standout on an album full of them.