Pianist Robert Mitchell and cellist Shirley Smart have been collaborating for several years now, notably on the former’s Invocation and Epiphany 3 projects, and to hear them as a duo confirms the growth of an advanced creative entente. They cohere but each individual remains strikingly virtuosic. Mitchell’s flourish of harmony and metric complexity enable him to really present the keyboard as a miniature orchestra while the faultless articulation of Smart’s pizzicato and fleet basslines as well as the singing quality of her arco work lends her a notable expressive range, almost as if those techniques give her two distinct voices. Crucially, all of these elements are held in balance. On a repertoire that has classical, European folk and non-western resonances Mitchell and Smart uphold the lineage of the most successful duos insofar as there is a careful focus on structure as well as stylistic invention, meaning that they move stealthily from melody to solo, unison playing to call and response, affirmation to implication, splash of tonal colour to undercurrent of rhythm. The result is music that has a strong but spiky lyricism and a poetry based on both fragmentation and fluency, making it clear that Mitchell and Smart have helmed their ability as soloists with a disciplined focus to make this duo a partnership of equals.