On Love Stories the sirenic power of Eliane Elias's voice, the unexpected twists and turns of her piano reharmonisations, coupled with the infinitely subtle orchestral charts of Rob Mathes – who chalks up his fourth collaboration with Elias here – combine to produce an album of incredible lyricism and profound musicality. Opening with Frances Lai's ‘A Man and a Woman’, the eponymous theme from the Oscar-winning 1966 film, the music-making, despite the wide-ranging textural palette, possesses an intimate delicacy, from the subtle bossa reworking of ‘Baby, Come to Me’ (complete with sublime backing vocals from Take 6's Mark Kibble) to delectable versions of ‘Bonita’ and the Sinatra homage, ‘Angel Eyes’. The album is sung almost entirely in English, the exception being a touching take (in Portuguese and English) on ‘Little Boat’ which features the song's composer, Roberto Menescal, on guitar. The album's three originals, the multi-layered ‘The Simplest Things’, the anguished ‘Silence’ – undoubtedly one of the most beautiful vocals that Elias has waxed – and the dreamlike ‘The View’ serve not only as further proof of Elias's artistic mastery, but also her ability to distil the very deepest emotions with such startling clarity.