This meeting is one of a kind. A French avant-garde jazz bassist and a specialist of the Armenian kamantcha (a traditional string instrument like a violin, but played upright) engage in a free improvisation session. Gaguik Mouradian had already recorded an exquisite solo album for Claude Tchamitchian's label, Émouvance. He doesn't reach the same dizzying emotional heights on this album, but his flexibility as an improviser is commanding, even though his sense of melody remains true to the Middle-Eastern canon. This is not a world-music-meets-jazz formula. Both musicians make a real effort to meet the other on a middle ground, if not somewhere entirely new. The best moments are found when the bassist chooses arco over pizzicato. Then the two instruments truly find a new way of communicating with each other. The music oscillates between a strange kind of classical chamber music, drone, and non-idiomatic improv. The three-part "Regards" is magnificent and ends on a feverish display of energy that provides the highlight of the album. When Tchamitchian plays pizzicato, his jazz background becomes more prominent, which in turn seems to push Mouradian deeper into his Middle-Eastern ornamental figures. These tunes have a lot of charm, but they don't function on the same level of synergy. Still, "Voix" and "Rêve" are beautiful pieces. In the latter, Mouradian comes back to the fragile playing that made his Kamantcha Solo unforgettable. This is probably the most unusual, unpredictable album of free improvisation of 2003. Novelty factor aside, it remains a highly satisfying one. ~ François Couture