Even outside the regaled and longstanding trio the Necks, pianist Chris Abrahams' work tends to follow a path of slow and lush development. With the band or solo, his music is too warm and full of repetition to really be called "minimalist," and yet it moves too gradually to ignore the minimalism in it.

Such a reliable work ethic is part of what makes listening to Chris Abrahams the synthesizer player so interesting. His 2009 double disc set Germ Studies (Splitrec) with Clare Cooper wasn't just odd for being a Dx7 / guzheng duet; It managed to be overwhelming in its smallness. It wasn't minimalist so much as it was miniscule � 198 tracks that darted around like a cloud of gnats. None of Them Would Remember It That Way, a duet with saxophonist Lucio Capace, is more easily digestible but is still a surprising move from the on-other-days pianist.

Heard again on the Yamaha Dx7 synth, Abrahams falls closer to the lowercase tree here than perhaps he has anywhere else on record. His playing here is, well, still insect-like, but closer to crickets and wasps than hovering gnats. The tones are more prolonged, and the three tracks range from seven to 27 minutes in length.

Playing the "who's playing what" game can be an indicator of a loss of interest, but in this case it really is fascinating to try to separate the channels of synth and sax. Capace is given to breathy exhortations and barely enunciated tones which disappear quite easily between the Abrahams' buzzes and moans. A sax not sounding like a sax doesn't alone make a record good, but the dynamism between the two players here is quietly enticing.