Of all the myriad duo formats in jazz and improvised music, the melding of electric guitar and acoustic double bass must be one of the most under-explored; perhaps it's a fear of the amplified instrument overwhelming the acoustic one, I don't know. But Melophobia makes a convincing case for having more duets of this type.

On this improvised recording, the 11 pieces range from the tranquil and shimmering to the fast and the furious. ‘Melophobia I’ starts off serenely enough with its bowed bass and spacey guitar textures but then moves into heavy metallic riffage over a walking bassline. Elsewhere, guitarist Tucker cacophonously unleashes his inner Sharrock or Ulmer, occasionally moving off into Bailey-esque territory, all the while with Martino providing sympathetic bowed, plucked and scraped backing. Nowhere is this more the case than on 'Melophobia III', where Tucker goes astral traveling, Martino anchoring his explorations with the simplest of basslines. All rather unexpected – in the best possible way.