This fine duo album from Australian harpist/vocalist Tara Minton and London bassist Ed Babar celebrates a long-standing musical collaboration. Penned by album producer Geoff Gascoyne, the scene-setting opener ‘Life In A Bubble’ presents a sirenic song without words using the simplest of materials. Gascoyne also chips in with an inventive arrangement of the ever-popular 1930 standard, ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’, which features irresistibly seductive playing and singing from Minton. Fuelled by the presence of guest percussionist, Lilia Iontcheva, there’s a captivating take on the instrumental ‘Games’, excerpted from harpist Dorothy Ashby’s ground-breaking 1968 album, Afro-Harping. Presented here under the new title ‘What We Have To Be’, the album reaches its high-water mark with Dave Holland’s ‘Dream of the Elders’, featuring lyrics by Norma Winstone, which is extraordinarily rich in detail and nuance not least due to the talismanic presence of tenor saxist Stan Sulzmann. Other highlights include Minton’s hypnotic treatment of ‘You Go To My Head’, where the harpist’s rippling ostinatos are underpinned by Babar’s fulsome, syncopated bass lines and Iontcheva’s colouristic detail, a beautiful duo take on Monk’s ‘Round Midnight’, plus a consummate interpretation of John Taylor’s ‘Whirlpool’, where Sulzmann’s gorgeous tenor playing adds considerable dramatic heft. Minton’s arrangement of Lennon and McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’ showcases her impressive vocal range and crystalline timbre, while the duo’s take on the Henry Mancini/Leslie Bricusse title track packs in an enormous depth of feeling.