Tigran Hamasyan Ambrose Akinmusire Tigran Hamasyan Ambrose Akinmusire/Austria 2019

The must-listen album, which is at the forefront of today's jazz world, is the first to be released, featuring the supreme duo sound of Tigran Hamasian, the best pianist/composer in the contemporary jazz scene, and Ambrose Akinmusire, the best trumpeter/composer, recorded on the highest quality soundboard, which is full of creativity and excitement throughout the entire work! This work is Hamasian's second piano solo work on Nonesuch, which is his first in about two years since his first work on Nonesuch, "Mockroot," and "Luis I Lush" on ECM, and the sequel to that, "For Kymri," named after his hometown of Armenia, Kymri, was released in 2018. It begins with two beautiful solo piano pieces that are Hamasian's own arrangement of Armenian folk songs, following the flow of his solo works. And from the third song, Akinmusire finally appears. In the first number of the duo, Hamasian performed an ambient piece that made full use of electronica. In fact, Hamasian is good at this kind of ambient music! From the first sound of the trumpet, Akinmusire was shocked by the vivid tone full of presence that he had never heard before. After that, Hamasian returned to the acoustic piano and performed a supreme duet with Akinmusire. At the end, he developed a complete improvisation, and the two ended with a wonderful encounter. Hamasian's piano seems to bring to mind various landscapes, and it is creative, innovative and beautiful. Akinmusire was described in a review published in the New York Times as "Akinmusire continues to make the most intimate and captivating music throughout his career. The tone of his trumpet is simple yet dangerously gentle." Furthermore, Pitchfork's description of his music as "a search for peace in a world of uncertainty" is as succinct as Hamasian's, being creative, innovative and beautiful.