One of Italy's most influential progressive jazz musicians, Gianluigi Trovesi has always drawn from a rich vein of Italian tradition across folk and classical idioms and drawn gracefully from both light mainstream and free jazz. His engagements with the accordionist Gianni Coscia never fail to produce sumptuously lyrical narratives and this new recording is no exception. The duo's relationship with ECM goes back to 1999 with In Cerca Di Cobo, thereafter paying tribute to Kurt Weill and Jacques Offenbach in 1995 and 2011 respectively. The new collection celebrates well-known novelist and semiotician, the late Umberto Eco, a lifelong friend of Coscia's before his death in 2016. Inspired by Eco's novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, the recording features a series of miniatures ranging from quaint standards, including a tender non-syrupy interpretation of Glenn Miller's ‘Moonlight Serenade’ and early blues, through to Italian WW2 resistance/post-war folk song. It positively reflects Eco's work and biography that's detailed with a warm personal touch by Coscia in the sleeve notes. No musical note goes to waste either and the instruments are exquisitely matched in timbre. It's a pretty rare case of high-class musicianship coupled with succinct expression.