Beautifully recorded duets for acoustic guitar and upright bass. Skirting from composed sounding snippets to myriad variations on the snap and tangle, with some snaking melodic ur-jazz. Kinda like a stroll through the history of these instruments, these displays keep reminding me of things I can't quite finger. Occasional extra-musical tidbits get sprinkled throughout-a quiet vocal sound or snuff, the rustle of clothing — they add to the general feeling of sitting down with two attentive players to listen. Allusions to everything from ECM introspection to Django, to John Russell flit by, with dollops of humor amid winding sonorous backstreets.

Gargaud and Grente play it pretty straight here, not much in the way of extended technique. Just tons of slippery tonal mapping and careful build-ups of tension and release. Chord knots and sproingy twangings. Uncannily, there is often a shared sense of pulse that the duo manage to define by playing around it. You could tap your foot to what's only being implied, and that's a difficult thing to set up. Intuition indeed. Deft I'd call it, and my cats like it too.