This pairing of Matt Edwards (best known as Radio Slave) and Thomas Gandey (Cagedbaby) is a meeting of friends and musical minds that doesn’t lead to the results you might expect. Conceived as a way of celebrating the Hansa record studios in Berlin, but with some of it recorded in the south of France – it is a free flowing album that allows for instinctive musical thought and improvisation, combining night time city scapes with warm, wide open textures. There is a relaxed ambience that runs through it, but that doesn’t lead to complacency or loss of structure, as both performers have honed the detail, ensuring there isn’t too much padding. So while the beatless ‘Crossroads’ makes quite a lengthy introduction it is always subtly heading somewhere, as the later jazzy interjections from Gandey’s keyboards prove. ‘Piano 2 Variation 4’ is much more defined, with a cutting piano loop that gets spliced and diced to really good effect. The best moments are where beats are involved, though – as the richly coloured ‘Warsaw’ and deep, subtly jazzy ‘Expriment 7 Variation 2’ prove. A rewarding hook-up, then – let’s hope it’s the first of several!
