This new duo album from Gretchen Parlato and Lionel Loueke celebrates 20-plus years of musical connection and camaraderie. Loueke appeared on Parlato's self-titled 2005 debut and her 2009 follow-up In A Dream, while Parlato returned the favour by guesting on Loueke's Virgin Forest (2006) and Heritage (2012).

Excerpted from the debut album of Loueke's trio project, Gilfema, the joyous syncopations of ‘Akwê’ serves as an ideal, scene-setting opener, with Loueke and Parlato locked together in perfect rhythmic unison. Parlato reinvents a favourite 1980s hit in the guise of ‘I Miss You’ from all-female LA pop/R&B band, Klymaxx, which is given a new lease of life in its strikingly new Brazilian setting.

With Travis and Guiliana providing additional textural heft, the album reaches its high-water mark with the remarkable ‘If I Knew’, which sees Parlato and Loueke riding an irresistible Afrobeat groove. If the duo's take on Carlos Pingarilho and Marcos Vasconcellos's ‘Astronauta’ is otherworldly, floating into your consciousness as if in a dream, Loueke's kora-like guitar arpeggiations in ‘Muse’ create a kind of hypnotic stasis, with Parlato's gorgeously sustained melodic line seeking out the nature of creativity (“Where does it go, someday I’ll know, I’m patiently holding the sound”).

With other highlights including Loueke's ‘Nonvignon’ from his 2008 album Karibu, the subtle textural layering of the title track with its beatific coda, plus a cover of Foo Fighters’ 'Walking After You', Parlato and Loueke's shared vision creates music that makes you move, touches the heart, and stirs the soul.