Café Paranoia celebrates and documents the long-standing musical friendship between the Munich-based pianist and composer Andy Lutter and the late, great Mark Murphy. In addition to a trio of songs which they co-wrote, there are eight miniature ‘Haiku Songs’ scattered throughout the album, including the rather Kurt Weil-lesque title track. The album also celebrates Lutter's friendship and creative partnership with the brilliant vocalist and fellow Murphy devotee, Tina May, with the first of four May/Lutter songs, ‘Aiming at the Moon’, powered by Lutter's Fender Rhodes and featuring a towering May scat. Possessing an enormous depth of feeling, ‘New York Skyline’ sees May's vocal line soaring above Lutter's deliciously spacious chordal backdrop, supported by the subtle contributions of Hauser and Pöschl. The Murphy/Lutter ballad ‘Less & Less’ is a sorrowing hymn to the travails of growing old (“I remember less and less – except you baby”), while ‘Dance Slowly’ similarly references the relentless march of time (“Still, the clock's ticking goes right on”). If the brilliant ‘Bop ‘til You Drop’ sees May at her virtuosic best, the ethereal ‘After a Year’ highlights her extraordinarily rich, heart-meltingly beautiful timbre.