This album of miniatures by percussionist Lucas Niggli and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier is a selection of 14 spontaneous compositions that concern themselves with the entire color spectrum of the percussive element, insofar as it relates to tonality, accent, and timbre between a piano and a percussion mélange that includes drums, both trap and hand, gongs, boxes, cymbals, metal bowls, shakers, marimbas, etc. Courvoisier is the perfect foil for Niggli in her halting approach to anything resembling melody, or harmony. Her concern is always rhythm. And Niggli is a halting, dimensional percussionist, leaning, as he does, into his instruments' tonal fields for inspiration and direction; for an example, listen to "Contreparties" or the title tracks. "Gate Lane" has elongated 7/8 patterns played largo by Courvoisier, and she creates a series of empty intervals (fourths and ninths) to allow for accent, dynamic, and the possibility of making static notes resonate with something other than their own reverberations into silence. Niggli shifts into a higher gear, and all but makes her notes disappear into the markings of new intervals that bear dynamic shifts of tension and repose. This is a beautiful recording, full of haunting silences and jarring movements. ~ Thom Jurek