A held tone and a fricative, low scraping sound open this disc of sound play by self-taught saxophonist Michel Doneda and classically trained percussionist Le Quan Ninh. One might think that these two musical upbringings would clash, but over the course of the next six examples these two gentlemen find ample space in which to collaborate and find common ground. Listen carefully and you'll hear how one or the other player responds to some aspect of his partner's playing: rhythm, timbre, pitch, grain, volume and weight are all considered as foils for sparring. At times they imitate each other rather uncannily, or suggest surprising soundscapes, like squeaking chairs and shuffling footsteps. They go from frenetic interplay to soft introspection and back, sometimes very quickly, sometimes halting abruptly together as though responding to some secret signal. Punctuation is often swift and sometimes quite humorous, without ever becoming frivolous or silly.

The recordings themselves, by Benjamin Pagier and (for the last track) May Saitoh are top notch, Ninh's bass drum completely fills the listening space and you can hear the metal of Doneda's soprano sax. For the aforementioned final piece, the duo are joined by Shunichiro Hisada on tzuzumi [a hand drum of Japanese origin] and voice. One can immediately tell that the recording space is different from the previous five tracks, a bit more open — a larger space perhaps. Hisada's tzuzumi and voice add another layer of interest as he strikes different pitches and vocalizes in everything from a yelp to a growl, including short passages of beautiful overtone singing. I am reminded at times of Sang Won Park's vocal interjections in his recordings with Henry Kaiser and Charles K. Noyes, another example of differing musical sensibilities coming together to create interesting music.